A new year is beginning and it is time to take stock of air traffic management in Europe and, especially, in Spain, one of the continent’s main tourist hubs. To maintain this leadership, the punctuality and efficiency of airports are key. AirHelp, the technology company that improves the passenger experience during flight disruptions, has analysed last year’s flights and presented its annual report on air punctuality in Europe and Spain.
In 2025, more than 935 million passengers passed through European airports, a decrease of 2.6% compared to the previous year. Improving on the figures for 2024, 25.69% of them experienced flight delays or cancellations, and almost 11 million were able to claim financial compensation for this under EC261, which regulates flights departing from the EU. More than 950,000 flights took off from Spanish airports, carrying nearly 140 million passengers. 76% of flights operated on time, while more than 34 million passengers were affected by delays or cancellations.
Although air traffic in Spain has remained more or less stable compared to 2024, when there were just 1,500 fewer flights, punctuality at Spanish airports has increased by 1.3%. This is a notable improvement, which is also reflected in the number of passengers entitled to compensation for delays and cancellations in our country, with an improvement in the figures from 2022 to 2025: 1.25 million; 2024: 1.60 million; 2023: 1.50 million; 2022: 1.39 million.
In terms of passenger volume, Spain is the European Union country with the most registered journeys, surpassed only by the United Kingdom in Europe. In terms of punctuality, Asturias Airport stands out in particular, with approximately 840,000 passengers and 89% of flights departing on time. Among the major airports, Bilbao is once again one of the most punctual in Spain, a recognition that is reflected in the latest edition of the AirHelp Score, published in July. Of the more than 3 million passengers who flew from the Basque airport, only 14.3% experienced some kind of incident.
At the opposite end of the scale is Palma, the country’s third largest airport, with the highest rate of delays: 34% of incidents, affecting more than 5 million passengers. It is followed by Reus (30.8%) and Murcia (28.5%). Among the major Spanish airports, punctuality reached 77.1% at Madrid-Barajas and 76.9% at Barcelona-El Prat.
At European level, Norway, Sweden and Estonia lead the way in flight punctuality, with disruption rates of less than 18%. In contrast, Greece (33.2%) and neighbouring France (29.6%) and Portugal (35.6%) have the worst records. As usual, the summer months see the highest volume of air traffic and also the highest rates of incidents, especially July, August and September, and even October. In Spain, the day with the highest number of disruptions was 3 July, due to a strike by air traffic controllers in France that led to the cancellation of nearly a hundred flights in Spain.