Summer chaos analysis: 68 million air travellers delayed across Europe - 12 percent of them in Germany

• AirHelp analyses flight cancellations and delays in Europe compared to 2019

• 36 percent of air travellers in Europe were delayed during the summer months of 2022

• Around 3.6 million passengers are entitled to compensation payments

Berlin, 21 September 2022 – With Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the holidays have now also come to an end in the last German states. AirHelp (www.airhelp.de), the world's largest organisation for air passenger rights, has taken this as an opportunity to take stock: In June, July and August, around 68 million travellers across Europe had to deal with flight problems, 8.3 million of them departing from Germany alone. Flights of a total of 3.7 million passengers across Europe were cancelled in the last three months.

Every third passenger affected by flight delays or cancellations

Staff shortages and strikes caused a lot of chaos at European airports during this year's summer months. Passengers in the Czech Republic in particular needed strong nerves: around 52 per cent of all passengers took off late from the neighbouring country. Holidaymakers in Belgium and Hungary had to contend with a similar number of problems, with 51 percent of passengers leaving the airport late. With a delay rate of 45 per cent, Germany is still in fifth place in the ranking, just behind Greece (46 per cent). Comparatively few flight problems occurred in Malta (19 per cent), Latvia (23 per cent) and Finland (23 per cent).

With around 8.3 million delayed passengers, about 12 percent of the 68 million delayed passengers across Europe departed from Germany - only in Great Britain (15 percent, ten million passengers) and Turkey (13 per cent, 8.6 million passengers) were even more people affected by delays and cancellations in absolute figures. 

There were particularly many flight problems at large, international airports

The major European airports in particular did not seem to be able to cope with the rush of holidaymakers: London Luton Airport handled about 1.2 million passengers this summer, of which about 677,000 passengers (56 per cent) experienced problems. The situation was no better at Germany's largest airport: Of the five million passengers, 2.8 million (56 per cent) also took off late. Brussels Airport came third in the ranking with 1.3 million delayed passengers (55 per cent).

Around 3.6 million passengers are entitled to compensation

Flight problems have increased significantly across Europe compared to before the pandemic: While in 2019, proportionately one in three travellers (30 percent) had difficulties with his or her flight, this year it was 36 percent. In the event of a delay of more than three hours or flight cancellations, air passengers have the right to compensation if the airlines themselves caused the problems. Of the 5.8 million passengers who were affected by such serious complications, around 3.6 million (61 per cent) can make a claim. In 2019, the figure was 52 per cent. 

Around 1.1 million of the passengers this summer who are entitled to compensation had difficulties in Germany. This means that in a Europe-wide comparison, it is mainly the airlines at German airports that have to bear the responsibility for the numerous cancellations and delays.

"Mainly due to staff shortages, but also due to the many airline staff strikes, which caused a lot of chaos during the holiday season. We do not expect things to look any better in the coming months, nor do we expect the airlines to willingly pay the compensation. On our website, affected passengers can check their claim for free before approaching the airlines directly or with our help," explains Julián Navas, legal expert at AirHelp.

Flight problems: Passengers have these rights

The amount of compensation is calculated based on the length of the flight. The rightful compensation claim depends on the actual length of delay at the point of arrival as well as the reason for the cancelled or delayed flight. Affected passengers can enforce their compensation claim retroactively, up to three years after their flight date.

Exceptional circumstances such as severe weather or medical emergencies can have the effect of exempting the operating airline from the obligation to compensate. Planned as well as spontaneous airline strikes do not count towards this.

About the study

The study is based on flight data from June to September 2019 and 2022, and examined how many passengers were affected by delays and flight cancellations in Europe during the periods. The number of passengers and the percentages were rounded. Only airports and countries where at least 1,000 or 5,000 flights took off were considered in the analysis. For accurate as well as meaningful data, AirHelp uses a variety of sources and combines them in a global flight database to, among other things, eliminate coverage gaps in the data of some providers. Providers are prioritised according to the quality of their data. In case of data conflicts (e.g. different arrival or departure times), the source with the highest authority is used instead of an average.

About AirHelp

AirHelp is the world's largest air passenger rights organisation. Since its foundation in 2013, the company has been helping travellers to enforce compensation for delayed or cancelled flights and in the event of denied boarding. In addition, AirHelp takes legal and political action to further strengthen the rights of air passengers worldwide. The company has already helped more than 16 million people, is active in 30 countries and employs more than 350 people.