Overwhelming passenger numbers caused chaos for airlines as pandemic travel restrictions were lifted earlier this year. With delays, cancellations and missing luggage, one in three UK travellers have experienced disruption this summer. But while some airlines are having to cut their schedules due to staff shortages and deal with strikes over working conditions, there are some that have been quietly surviving.

Ryanair, the UK’s largest airline, yesterday (23 Aug) added over 1 million low-fare seats to its winter schedules to/from 20 UK airports in response to BA’s announcement that it will cancel 8% of its winter schedule (over 10,000 flights) due to staff shortages and capacity cuts at “Hopeless Heathrow”.

Recovery of TAP’s activity continued during the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22) with revenues, passenger numbers and departures more than doubling compared to the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) Revenues reached 99% of its pre-crisis level (second quarter 2019) Load Factor at 80%, equivalent to 96% of 2019 pre-crisis levels

Europe’s capacity recovery as a percentage of 2019 levels has broken out of its narrow 13-week range of 86%-87%, reaching close to 89%. This is the closest to 2019 capacity since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Europe’s total seat capacity is at 88.6% in the week commencing 22-Aug-2022, which is a shortfall of 11.4% against the equivalent week in 2019.

Greece Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias has introduced a new specific strategy for 2023 after mentioning the country’s success in the tourism sector for this year.

Industry experts say that Italy has consistently been among the top destinations for European summer bookings since international travel returned in the spring, and travel demand soared to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic.