UK flights to reach 80% of 2019 levels in August

The figures from aviation analytics firm Cirium show that overall capacity in August will reach 14.6 million seats, despite British Airways axing thousands of short-haul services this summer as the aviation industry struggles to cope with soaring demand and a shortage of staff.

“August 2022 is scheduled to be the busiest month for UK departures since October 2019 - showing that despite caps, the recovery is underway,” added Cirium.

The number of departing flights is still at only 80% of August 2019 levels, although they represent an 81% compared with August 2021.

EasyJet will be UK’s busiest airline, despite having its own problems with cancellations this summer, with more than 16,500 services in August, followed by Ryanair (13,000 flights), British Airways (12,100) and Jet2.com (6,000).

Dublin is the most served destinations from the UK with nearly 3,000 flights in August, followed by Amsterdam, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga.

Heathrow has put in place a daily cap of 100,000 departing passengers until 11 September. Gatwick has also imposed a cap on the number of flights during the peak summer months of July and August, with this month’s cap set at 850 flights a day.