European Summer 2025 - Flight Plans and Market Insights

In the latest episode of the Travel Hero Podcast by ITB Berlin, Charlotte Lamp Davies, founder of the consultancy A Bright Approach, discusses air traffic trends for summer 2025 with Olivier Ponti, Director of Intelligence & Marketing at ForwardKeys.

Current figures clearly indicate: Europe is heading towards a record year. The first half of the year is already 7% above the previous year, with an additional 6% growth forecasted for the summer months — remarkable given the already high base values. The main drivers behind this development are capacity increases in Central and Eastern Europe (+9%) as well as Southern Europe (+7%).

Among the most notable growth markets are Poland (+14%) and the United Arab Emirates (+10%). Countries like Italy, Turkey, and the USA are also heavily investing in their connectivity to Europe, significantly expanding their links to the EU27 region as well as to the UK. Cities such as Warsaw are experiencing particularly strong development with a capacity increase of 20%, alongside Alicante and Milan which are growing by 9% and 8%, respectively. A noteworthy special case is France: despite the removal of 40 routes, the country shows no decline but rather a redistribution — fewer routes but more seats on high-demand connections.

Beyond pure capacity, demand indicators such as search behavior are gaining prominence in analyses. ForwardKeys’ search data shows especially high growth rates for Belgium (+28%) and Poland (+13%). Smaller and previously less prominent destinations like Menorca are also developing positively — in this case outperforming other Balearic Islands. This opens new opportunities for secondary and tertiary regions outside traditional main travel hubs.

Increasingly important is the question of how travel evolves in a world where location-independent work becomes the norm. Already, 43% of European destinations have developed targeted strategies to attract remote workers and digital nomads. This creates potential for longer stays, off-season utilization, and new target segments.

Ponti emphasizes the growing importance of data-driven strategies for destinations: those who identify demand early — through search queries or booking behavior — can intervene strategically, plan campaigns, cooperate with airlines, or initiate new routes. Especially during low season or on underutilized routes, growth impulses can be triggered with comparatively low effort. Successful destination management today primarily means leveraging informational advantages intelligently.

The conversation also makes clear that it’s no longer just about maximizing the number of connections, but about strategically harmonizing all factors — supply, demand, and target group expectations. Flexibility, scenario planning, and a deeper understanding of travel motivations will be crucial to remain competitive in an increasingly challenging market environment, according to Ponti.

The full discussion is available on itb.com as well as on all major podcast platforms for on-demand listening.