As the school holidays begin for many across the UK, Cirium has revealed the number of scheduled departures from UK airports this weekend and how these compare to pre-pandemic levels.

Analysis reveals that this Friday (19 July) is set to be the busiest day for UK flight departures so far this year, with over 3,214 departures alone – the highest number of daily departures since October 2019.
Cirium Data – Summer Getaways
 
This weekend (Friday 19 - Sunday 21 July 2024), 9,075 flights are scheduled to depart UK airports - equating to over 1.6 million seats
This Friday (19 July) is set to be the busiest day for UK flight departures so far this year, with over 3,214 departures alone – the highest number of daily departures since October 2019
Compared to the same weekend in 2023, scheduled departures are up 4% year-on-year
Scheduled departures across the weekend are also set to reach 93% of 2019 levels
While UK departure numbers sit below 2019 levels, there are over 2,500 more available seats from UK airports over the three days, compared to the same weekend in 2019, due to larger aircraft being used
Heathrow Airport is projected to record the highest number of departures, followed by Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Edinburgh
The most popular international destinations for UK departures are projected to be Dublin, Amsterdam, Palma, Alicante and Malaga
easyJet is projected to operate the largest number of UK departures this weekend, followed by Ryanair, British Airways, Jet2.com and TUI

For a breakdown of the hottest holiday destinations from the UK and how flights compare to pre-pandemic levels can be found below: