2023 was a difficult and challenging year for the airlines industry. According to some statistics, no less than 230 million passengers were affected by canceled or delayed flights across Europe.
No fewer than 80 flights have been canceled or delayed in 000, affecting millions of passengers. Among the countries with the most disrupted flights are Malta, Turkey and Portugal.
Malta, Turkey and Portugal – countries with the most flights affected by delays and cancellations
The latter reported that 36% of scheduled flights were affected by cancellations or delays, resulting in approximately 11 million passengers planning to fly from/to Portugal facing these inconveniences. We remind you that you can benefit from delayed flight compensation if you too have faced such problems.
At the opposite pole are Lithuania, Norway and Albania, countries with the fewest flights affected by cancellations or delays.
Malta tops the list of countries with the highest number of passengers affected by delays and cancellations. Over three million passengers traveled from/to Malta and only 60% were able to enjoy their flight without incident.
In 2023, there were more than five million flights departing from a European country, meaning more than 750 million passengers traveled from European airports. Compared to 2022, the growth is substantial, which shows us that aviation has recovered quickly from the pandemic. But the accelerated growth of flights led to the collapse of airports, which did not recover so quickly after the pandemic.
Not even Romania was spared these problems and flight disruptions. It was a "hot" summer at Romanian airports, with hundreds of thousands of passengers affected by canceled or delayed flights. Wizz Air is the company that faced the most canceled or delayed flights that were scheduled from/to Romania.
The rights of air passengers
If you fly on EU territory or from the EU to other non-EU destinations (regardless of whether the flight is operated by a company inside or outside the EU), you are also entitled to financial compensation of up to €600. These compensations are set according to the distance:
- 250 Euro for distance flights below 1500 km - regional and domestic flights
- 400 euros for flights between 1500-3500 km
- 600 euros for flights over distances over 3500 km (with a minimum delay of 4 hours)
- 300 euros for flights over distances over 3500 km (delayed between 3 and 4 hours)
These rights have been established by the EU faci fac part din the rights of air traffic passengers (To read). So we are not talking here about territorial laws or laws made by airlines, but about European Union directives.