The passenger rights portal AirHelp took a closer look at which countries had the most problems in connection with flights during the ongoing summer season 2021. Belgium, France and Germany take inglorious places.

Despite Corona, European citizens did not miss their summer vacation and traveled a lot - more than 400.000 flights were booked in Europe alone. No comparison to 2020. In the years before the corona pandemic, however, this main travel season was particularly prone to flight problems. AirHelp therefore wanted to know at the end of the vacation in Germany to what extent passengers were affected by delays and cancellations in Europe this summer. The analysis of flight data from 15 European countries for June and July 2021 shows that the most incidents occurred in Belgium, France and Germany.

Although there was comparatively little flown in Belgium (less than 10.000 flights in June and July), the number of passengers affected by delays and flight cancellations is high: almost every third traveler (31 percent) had to deal with disruptions. That corresponds to around 271.000 passengers. In France, too, at least one in four passengers (26 percent) was affected by flight disruptions, that is more than 3.660.000 passengers on around 57.200 flights analyzed.

One fifth of flights from Germany are affected

Germans not only like to go on holiday themselves, but Germany is also a popular travel destination for Europeans. Almost 60.000 planes have left German airports in the last two months and transported around 3,68 million passengers on vacation or back home. There were also numerous delays and flight cancellations in this country: More than every fifth passenger (21 percent) was affected by delays or cancellations in the summer months - the third highest value in the comparison.

“After the corona-related break last year, the aviation industry is approaching its original travel volume again. At first, this is very gratifying. However, the fact that the proportion of delays and cancellations increased by more than half from June to July shows that we are again on the path of the years before Corona on the problem side. Passengers affected should therefore find out about the background to the airlines and then check whether they are entitled to compensation ”, says Christian Leininger, legal expert at AirHelp.

In July, AirHelp recorded significantly more flight movements in Europe (over 240.000) than in June (around 160.000). This corresponds to an increase of around 55 percent. Similarly, the share of delays and cancellations rose - not just in absolute numbers, but also proportionally: In Belgium, 35 percent of passengers suffered disruptions in July, compared with 26 percent in the previous month. In France, the increase is even greater: while 19 percent of all travelers were affected by flight problems in June, it was already 31 percent in July. In Germany the proportion rose from 17 to 24 percent. On average for all countries analyzed, the proportion of passengers affected rose by 65 percent from June to July.

The AirHelp evaluation at a glance: