Eurocontrol: European air traffic up 3.4% in week 27
In its European Aviation Overview report for week 27 (29 June to 5 July 2026), Eurocontrol said the European network handled an average of 36,055 flights per day, up 1.4% from the previous week and 3.4% more than in the same period of 2025.
The report was published on 9 July 2026 and, besides overall traffic volume, also covers developments in individual markets, flight punctuality, causes of delays and jet fuel prices.
According to Eurocontrol, traffic between Europe and the Middle East saw the largest week-on-week increase, rising 13% compared with week 26. Year-on-year, the volume of these flights was 3% higher than in the same week of 2025 - a milder increase than the weekly one. Eurocontrol links this trend to the continued recovery in traffic following the agreement between the US and Iran signed on 17 June 2026.
- Average flights per day
- 36,055
- Change vs week 26
- +1.4%
- Change vs 2025
- +3.4%
- Europe–Middle East, weekly
- +13%
- Arrival punctuality
- 70.6%
- Departure punctuality
- 64.2%
- ATFM delay per flight
- 3.37 min/flight
- Fuel price 3 July 2026
- $2.91/gal
The ten busiest carriers, according to Eurocontrol, increased capacity by an average of 0.9% compared with the previous week. At state level, the ten busiest countries recorded a 2.0% increase in flight numbers compared with the previous week.
Network-wide arrival punctuality reached 70.6% and departure punctuality 64.2%, which Eurocontrol says is an improvement on the comparable week in 2025.
En-route ATFM delays fell 9% week-on-week to around 98,000 minutes of delay per day and were 44% lower than in 2025. Total ATFM delay per flight stood at 3.37 minutes, of which 2.72 minutes was en-route and 0.65 minutes was attributable to airports.
Causes and locations of delays
- Weather was the main cause of delays, accounting for 51% of all en-route ATFM delays, most notably in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Serbia/Montenegro.
- The highest en-route delays per flight were reported by the Marseille centre (2.77 min/flight).
- These were followed by Athens (2.34 min/flight), Skopje (1.82 min/flight), Karlsruhe (1.81 min/flight) and Barcelona (1.71 min/flight).
According to Eurocontrol, jet fuel prices in Europe fell sharply from the war-driven peak of early April, when they averaged $5.01 per gallon, to $2.91 per gallon as of 3 July 2026. Compared with two weeks earlier, however, prices were 1% higher, which Eurocontrol attributes to the market's shift from geopolitical disruptions towards a gradual normalisation of supply chains.
The report also states that, excluding inflation, airfares for the January-May 2026 period were 1.7% lower compared with the same period in 2025.