As the school holidays begin for many across the UK, Cirium has revealed the number of scheduled departures from UK airports this weekend and how these compare to pre-pandemic levels.
Analysis reveals that this Friday (19 July) is set to be the busiest day for UK flight departures so far this year, with over 3,214 departures alone – the highest number of daily departures since October 2019.
Cirium Data – Summer Getaways
- This weekend (Friday 19 – Sunday 21 July 2024), 9,075 flightsare scheduled to depart UK airports – equating to over 1.6 million seats
- This Friday (19 July) is set to be the busiest day for UK flight departures so far this year, with over 3,214 departures alone – the highest number of daily departures since October 2019
- Compared to the same weekend in 2023, scheduled departures are up 4% year-on-year
- Scheduled departures across the weekend are also set to reach 93% of 2019 levels
- While UK departure numbers sit below 2019 levels, there are over 2,500 more available seatsfrom UK airports over the three days, compared to the same weekend in 2019, due to larger aircraft being used
- Heathrow Airport is projected to record the highest number of departures, followed by Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Edinburgh
- The most popular international destinations for UK departures are projected to be Dublin, Amsterdam, Palma, Alicante and Malaga
- easyJet is projected to operate the largest number of UK departures this weekend, followed by Ryanair, British Airways, Jet2.com and TUI
- For a breakdown of the hottest holiday destinations from the UK and how flights compare to pre-pandemic levels can be found below:
| Route | July 2024 flights | July 2023 flights | July 2019 flights | % change 24 vs 23 | % change 24 vs 19 |
| UK – Morocco | 644 | 424 | 369 | 51.9% | 74.5% |
| UK – Türkiye | 4,171 | 3,586 | 2,440 | 16.3% | 70.9% |
| UK – Greece | 5,123 | 4,960 | 3,737 | 3.3% | 37.1% |
| UK – Cyprus | 1,217 | 1,063 | 1,079 | 14.5% | 12.8% |
| UK – Croatia | 1,063 | 1,017 | 965 | 4.5% | 10.2% |
| UK – USA | 4,650 | 4,658 | 4,603 | -0.2% | 1.0% |
| UK – Portugal | 3,114 | 3,198 | 3,098 | -2.6% | 0.5% |
| UK – Spain | 14,825 | 14,052 | 14,962 | 5.5% | -0.9% |
| UK – Italy | 5,150 | 4,805 | 5,553 | 7.2% | -7.3% |
| UK – UAE | 871 | 812 | 950 | 7.3% | -8.3% |
| UK – Ireland | 4,445 | 4,607 | 4,937 | -3.5% | -10.0% |
| UK – France | 4,365 | 4,352 | 5,080 | 0.3% | -14.1% |
| UK – Netherlands | 3,399 | 3,370 | 4,171 | 0.9% | -18.5% |