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Last Week in Europe – Monday 14 February 2022

Posted on | Airlines, Airports, Europe, News & Analysis, Top Story

Last week in Europe

For the second week in a row, analysis of Eurocontrol data shows that the recovery rate for European flights (comparing 2022 movements with those during the same period in 2019) improved during the last seven days. The 7-day average had fallen to just 62.9% on 29 January but improved to reach 66.3% on Saturday 5 February. A week later, on 12 February 2022, the recovery rate has risen once again, by over three percentage points, to 69.7%.

Among the 12 airlines tracked in more detail in our graph, Ryanair has again achieved the best recovery rate of 101.7%, up from 89.4% just one week earlier. This means that the Irish ULCC is actually operating almost 2% more flights than it did in mid-February 2019. Iberia is still second in terms of recovery rate, ahead of Turkish Airlines and Wizz Air. Among the 12 airlines shown in the graph, seven showed an improvement in their recovery rates compared with a week earlier. The five airlines that saw a small drop in their recovery rates were Iberia (from 85.9% to 83.7%), KLM (from 76.2% to 75.4%), Lufthansa (from 53.5% to 50.3%), SAS (from 45.4% to 44.8%) and Norwegian (from 29.5% to 28.6%).

Major European airlines in 2021/22

easyJet up from fourth to third

On Saturday 12 February the leading airline for flights in Eurocontrol airspace was Ryanair (2,073 flights), a long way ahead of Turkish Airlines (1,028), easyJet (1,000) and Lufthansa (839). Then came Air France (689), KLM (562), British Airways (494) and Wizz Air (414). In the low-cost market, it is worth noting that Ryanair operated more than twice as many flights as easyJet and five times as many as Wizz Air. Given the high-profile that Wizz Air has cultivated during the pandemic, it may be useful remember that the carrier is just one-fifth the size of Ryanair when it comes to flights operated during the last week.

Want more information on:

  • European seat capacity changes made since last week for February, March and April?
  • New routes launched in Europe during the last seven days?
  • Latest airport passenger statistics for European airports for January?
  • Latest European airline route announcements?

If so, then check out our weekly Last Week in Europe report which can be downloaded here.