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European airport delay statistics 2025: rankings and causes

EUROCONTROL records, for every day and airport, how long arriving flights were held back by air traffic flow restrictions and why. We ranked 103 European airports with at least 20,000 arrivals in 2025 – and show which were hit hardest by weather, air traffic control and strikes.

By the EU261 Flight Delay editorial team Last reviewed: How we write our guides

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Overview

In 2025, 8,063,666 flights arrived at the 233 European airports in our data. Air traffic flow restrictions added 6,932,681 minutes of delay – 0.86 minutes per arrival, compared with 0.92 in 2024. 155,350 arrivals were held back by more than 15 minutes.

What caused the delay (2025)

  • weather45%
  • aerodrome capacity24%
  • ATC capacity19%
  • ATC staffing3%
  • equipment (ATC)3%
  • other2%
  • special event1%
  • environmental issues1%

Average ATFM delay per arrival by month (min)

  1. J
  2. F
  3. M
  4. A
  5. M
  6. J
  7. J
  8. A
  9. S
  10. O
  11. N
  12. D

Summer is the problem: thunderstorms and the peak in traffic push air traffic control to its limits from June to August, exactly when most people fly on holiday.

Most delayed airports in 2025

Air traffic flow delay per arriving flight, airports with at least 20,000 arrivals.

#AirportArrivalsMin per arrivalMain cause
1Athens (ATH)
Greece		139,3155.46ATC capacity (91%)
2Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)
Netherlands		246,5114.83aerodrome capacity (50%)
3Nice (NCE)
France		76,0834.12ATC capacity (74%)
4Crete Heraklion (HER)
Greece		33,2583.93aerodrome capacity (99%)
5Lisbon (LIS)
Portugal		115,2942.83weather (69%)
6Porto (OPO)
Portugal		56,3192.45weather (73%)
7Zurich (ZRH)
Switzerland		133,8772.44weather (48%)
8Naples (NAP)
Italy		45,7212.34environmental issues (36%)
9Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
Spain		122,5861.97weather (85%)
10London Heathrow (LHR)
United Kingdom		240,0691.51weather (87%)
11Barcelona El Prat (BCN)
Spain		180,4281.36weather (87%)
12Marseille (MRS)
France		49,7161.36equipment (ATC) (63%)
13London Gatwick (LGW)
United Kingdom		131,5491.33weather (64%)
14Gran Canaria (LPA)
Spain		70,7131.28aerodrome capacity (59%)
15Manchester (MAN)
United Kingdom		101,6181.11aerodrome capacity (66%)

Most delay minutes in total: Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) (1,190,455 min), Athens (ATH) (760,787 min), London Heathrow (LHR) (361,695 min), Zurich (ZRH) (326,660 min), Lisbon (LIS) (325,836 min), Nice (NCE) (313,556 min), Barcelona El Prat (BCN) (244,682 min), Palma de Mallorca (PMI) (241,632 min).

Least delayed airports

#AirportArrivalsMin per arrivalMain cause
1Valencia (VLC)
Spain		44,1150.00weather (100%)
2Bilbao (BIO)
Spain		25,4660.00ATC capacity (75%)
3Gdańsk (GDN)
Poland		27,0510.00–
4Riga (RIX)
Latvia		31,4170.00weather (100%)
5Gothenburg (GOT)
Sweden		24,9680.00accident/incident (72%)
6Turin (TRN)
Italy		20,2910.00accident/incident (100%)
7Hanover (HAJ)
Germany		25,9970.00–
8Nuremberg (NUE)
Germany		21,4430.00–
9Glasgow (GLA)
United Kingdom		36,9710.00aerodrome capacity (100%)
10Chișinău (RMO)
Moldova		22,3080.00–

Where weather caused the most delay

#AirportWeather delay (min)Share of its ATFM delayWorst day
1Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)579,75249%17 January 2025 (weather)
2London Heathrow (LHR)315,76087%19 July 2025 (weather)
3Lisbon (LIS)223,84969%17 March 2025 (weather)
4Barcelona El Prat (BCN)213,36387%21 September 2025 (weather)
5Palma de Mallorca (PMI)205,62985%11 October 2025 (weather)
6Frankfurt (FRA)178,82282%27 July 2025 (weather)
7Zurich (ZRH)158,10348%9 May 2025 (weather)
8Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)124,53756%5 December 2025 (weather)
9London Gatwick (LGW)111,58764%29 September 2025 (weather)
10Porto (OPO)101,12473%6 June 2025 (equipment (ATC))
11Vienna (VIE)93,24693%6 July 2025 (weather)
12Munich (MUC)54,35477%1 August 2025 (weather)

Airlines often cite weather to reject claims. A weather restriction counts only if it caused your delay. Check what was recorded on your travel day.

Where air traffic control caused the most delay

#AirportATC delay (min)Share
1Athens (ATH)702,20692%
2Nice (NCE)263,07384%
3Marseille (MRS)48,35271%
4Geneva (GVA)37,50643%
5Frankfurt (FRA)34,66716%
6Palma de Mallorca (PMI)33,58714%
7Copenhagen (CPH)32,63746%
8Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)31,30114%
9Edinburgh (EDI)30,42584%
10Paris Orly (ORY)29,40430%
11Madrid Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (MAD)27,29028%
12Naples (NAP)26,41925%

ATC capacity, staffing, equipment and airspace restrictions are outside the airline’s control. Air traffic control delays and compensation.

Air traffic control strike days since 2024

Days on which EUROCONTROL attributed arrival flow delays to industrial action by air traffic control, by total minutes across the airports in our data.

DateStrike delay (min)Airports affected
25 May 20248,631ORY
26 May 20246,188ORY
3 July 20253,734BOD, MRS, NCE, BVA
22 August 20263,098OSL, FUE, ACE
7 March 20242,838FUE, ACE
15 February 20242,742FUE, ACE
5 December 20242,642BOD, MRS, ORY, NCE, AVN, LDE
13 May 20252,609MRS, ORY, AVN
10 April 20262,565VCE, BLQ, NAP, MXP, CTA, TSF
29 September 20262,555FUE, MRS, CDG
2 October 20252,451BVA, LIG
29 May 20242,440MRS, BVA

An ATC strike is generally an extraordinary circumstance; a strike by the airline’s own staff is not. Upcoming strikes: strike calendar.

By country

CountryAirportsArrivalsMin per arrival
Netherlands4267,9384.44
Greece13307,7963.75
Switzerland2219,4101.89
Portugal10249,4471.88
France44808,7750.99
United Kingdom17975,2050.79
Spain391,166,2840.70
Austria6162,3860.64
Denmark1128,3590.55
Belgium5161,0580.49
Czech Republic480,0890.49
Poland15257,8710.48
Serbia144,9290.44
Germany15853,2420.42
Cyprus251,1040.40
Italy14679,6600.31
Turkey5606,3230.27
Romania268,2210.27
Ireland6160,1100.27
Malta136,9760.18
Finland178,0190.18
Luxembourg135,9100.15
Norway5214,5960.13
Albania135,0330.04
Hungary169,1070.04
Sweden3130,6790.01
Bulgaria133,5420.01
Latvia131,4170.00

Method

We use EUROCONTROL’s open “airport arrival ATFM delay” data: per airport and day, the number of arrivals, the minutes of delay caused by arrival flow regulations and the reason code of each regulation. We summed days to years, weighted causes by minutes and ranked airports with at least 20,000 arrivals in 2025. Weather includes de-icing; air traffic control includes ATC capacity, staffing, equipment, routeing and airspace management. The data does not include delays caused by airlines (technical problems, crew, late aircraft) or en-route restrictions away from the airport. Download the data.

Frequently asked questions

Which European airport had the most delays in 2025?

Measured by air traffic flow (ATFM) delay per arriving flight, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport ranked first among airports with at least 20,000 arrivals: 5.46 minutes per arrival, mostly ATC capacity. Source: EUROCONTROL.

What causes most air traffic flow delays in Europe?

In 2025, weather (45%), aerodrome capacity (24%), ATC capacity (19%) caused most of the arrival flow delay at the airports in our data. These are restrictions imposed by air traffic control and airports, not the airline’s own problems.

Does an ATFM delay mean I can claim compensation?

Usually not on its own. Air traffic control and weather restrictions are typically extraordinary circumstances. But most delays of three hours or more come from the airline’s own operation – technical faults, crew, late aircraft – which this data does not show. Use our weather checker to compare the airline’s explanation with the record for your day.

Can I download the data?

Yes – see data downloads for CSV files of the airport rankings, routes and UK punctuality data, free to reuse with attribution to the original sources.

Source: EUROCONTROL (Aviation Intelligence Portal), processed by EU261 Flight Delay. Information only, not legal advice.

Sources

  1. EUROCONTROL – airport arrival ATFM delays (open performance data) – EUROCONTROL

We check every rule against the sources above. Spotted an error? Tell us – see our editorial policy.