Europe summer 2025: Air travel surge and challenges

May 20 2025 Travel trends

As the summer of 2025 approaches, Europe is looking forward to what could be one of the busiest air travel seasons in recent times. With the restrictions of the pandemic era well behind it and traveller confidence continuing to pick up, the continent’s aviation industry is set for a good upward lift. There will also be new challenges though, to accompany this growth--ranging from limitations in air traffic control and changing behaviour of the traveling public in ways that will shape whether Europe enjoys success from summer travel.

Resilient recovery: Passenger numbers soaring

According to Eurocontrol, air traffic in all of Europe will total about 11 million flights in 2025, a 4% increase over last year. The recovery brings Western Europe close to its pre-pandemic flight volume in many places if not all. Some countries, such as Spain, Italy and Greece are expected to surpass their 2019 numbers thanks to flourishing demand from both European and transatlantic travellers.

That surge is driven by strong demand from leisure travellers who have accumulated a lot of lost time, a resilient labor market in Europe, and good flight prices early in the year. Low-cost carriers like Ryanair, Wizz Air, and easyJet are still aggressively extending their networks. So too are the traditional airlines strengthening their international offerings in response to transatlantic demand.

Traveler habits are changing

From 2015 until now, there has been a dramatic shift in the choice of destinations by this year's HENRY traveller according to Skyscanner's “Horizons” report. Less well-known cities are now very popular, whereas such headline destinations as Paris and Rome- hotting up every summer these days-will certainly show decline this peak period because of all their congestion for tourists.

Reggio Calabria in Italy, for instance, just as one of many off-the-beaten-track destinations, has seen its daily searches soar by an astonishing 541%. And alongside this, little-growing towns such as Tartu (Estonia), Córdoba (Spain) and Tromsø (Norway) have also had their second cities experiencing a surge of new tourists.

This trend reflects a general shift towards picking "out of the way" destinations where affordability, a more authentic experience and fewer crowds go hand in hand. Moreover, as this article points out, the cities in question themselves are benefiting directly from concerns over tourism development and sustainability. While such phenomenon may seem rather bizarre to us today (if it ever strikes one as strange), mass travel has clearly lost its charm for many adventurous spirits who are increasingly sensitive to social inequality and environmental problems associated with their vacations.

Kerning has emerged as yet another trend connected with destination shifts. Travelers are searching for unique nighttime experiences that can be enjoyed on the road--such as stargazing, northern lights excursions or late-night culinary tours. Tromsø, a city already renowned for its Arctic charm, is now the leading purveyor of these nocturnal experiences. You must make reservations months in advance to join one of the aurora-viewing parties which go there. Moreover, the sun never sets during summer in Tromsø -and countless people make midnight hikes to see it in all its splendortific glory.

Experience-led travel

Summer 2025, is also going to witness a new trend in travel centred around experiences. Booking.com’s annual travel forecasts show a pick-up in the tourist spotlight cast on adventure tourism, wellness retreats and “inner journeys” -- travel for personal growth, taking time off from working everybody else’s dream job management trainee, digital detox destinations where you can log off Facebook each day and enjoy some self-nurturing without any soul-crushing computer tabs open at all hours. Activities are varied too, with anything from yoga retreats in Portugal to cookery courses through Croatia or getting out there mountain biking the Alps. European destinations are also paying more attention than before to the growing demand for richer and more engaging travel.

Another trend is that of mixing leisure with work. The ‘prodigious holidays’ in short increasingly look likely to catch on. Now that hybrid work has become standard for a great many professionals, people are staying longer in some place and thus maybe combining a week of work with some weekend exploration.

Support in the skies: When planes go wrong

With air traffic and weather-related delays and cancellations expected to increase, passengers need to be able to act fast when things go wrong. This is where services like MYFLYRIGHT can differ in a very real way. Specializing in passenger rights under EU Regulation 261/2004, MYFLYRIGHT helps travellers to claim compensation of up €600 for flight disruptions, like delays, cancellations or denied boarding, without the hassle of legal forms. Their user-friendly platform enables passengers to determine their eligibility in minutes and file claims without any upfront expenses, only charging a commission if the case is successful. For those who must negotiate the unpredictability of Europe's summer skies, MYFLYRIGHT is a source of comfort and guarantees that they will eventually just receive compensation.