Wizz Air almost at 100% of 2019 flights in first week of August
Analysis of the latest Eurocontrol movement data shows that during the first week of August Europe’s largest airlines showed some modest improvements compared with the previous week in terms or flight recovery compared with 2019. Ten of the 12 airlines in the analysis improved their recovery percentage compared with the previous week, with only Norwegian and Turkish Airlines showing a drop.
British Airways saw a 3.6 percentage point improvement in its recovery rate from 31.1% to 34.7%, while easyJet (56.8% to 60.7%) also registered a significant step forward thanks to the UK easing some of its strict travel restrictions. By improving from 82.0% to 87.7%, Ryanair surpassed Turkish Airlines for the first time in terms of recovery rate. Wizz Air at 99.3% has come closest among these larger airlines of exceeding its 2019 flights.
Widerøe and Pegasus Airlines are also both close to 100%, but special mention should be made of Volotea, which is now at 117% of its 2019 flights. With 315 flights on Monday 9 August, the carrier is only three places behind British Airways for flights and is ahead of Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, Iberia, LOT Polish Airlines, SWISS and TAP Portugal.
British Airways now ranks as 12th busiest airline in Europe
As measured by actual flights operated, Eurocontrol data shows that Ryanair was by far the busiest airline in terms of flights operated on Monday 9 August. The carrier had 2,346 flights, well ahead of Turkish Airlines (1,309), easyJet (1,200), Air France (896) and Lufthansa (810). Rounding out the top 10 airlines for flights were KLM, Wizz Air, Vueling, Pegasus Airlines and SAS. British Airways ranked just 12th (with 343 flights) behind Aegean Airlines, up two places from a week earlier.