European flight disruption data for journalists
Every month we publish how many flights from European airports were cancelled or arrived three or more hours late, ranked by airline and airport. The figures, charts and raw data are free to republish with attribution.
support@skypaid.euPut “Press enquiry” in the subject line. We can pull figures for a specific airline, airport, route or country.
Latest report
Key findings: September 2026
Month to date, 4–28 September 2026.
- 1.49% of 264,727 departures from 51 European airports were cancelled or arrived 3+ hours late (4–28 September 2026).
- Among airlines with 5,000+ departures, ITA Airways was the most disrupted (3.75%) and LOT Polish Airlines the most reliable (0.19%).
- Catania Fontanarossa was the most disrupted airport: 14.27% of 3,363 departures.
- The worst day was September 8, 2026, with 509 cancellations and 149 flights 3+ hours late.
- 8–9 September 2026: UK air traffic control failure. A fault in the NATS flight processing system restricted departures from UK airports for several hours on 8 September. More than 1,000 flights to and from the UK were cancelled, and the backlog carried into the next day.
- 14–16 & 26–28 September 2026: Mount Etna ash closes Catania, twice. Volcanic ash from Mount Etna shut Catania’s airspace on 14 September and again from 26 to 28 September. Those six days account for 432 of Catania’s 447 cancellations this month, which is why it tops the airport table and Sicilian routes fill the busiest-routes list.
- 16–23 September 2026: Night-time air traffic control strike at Charleroi. Skeyes controllers at Brussels South Charleroi stopped work every night from 22:00 to 08:00 in a dispute over night-shift pay, until the action was suspended for mediation on 23 September. Aircraft that could not land in the evening left the next morning’s first departures stranded, so 161 of Charleroi’s 162 cancellations this month fall in those eight days, almost all of them Ryanair.
Charts and data
Ready to publish
Charts are 1600 × 900 PNGs with the source line built in. The CSV holds every airline, airport, day and route in the report.
Usage
Attribution and method
The report is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit “SkyPaid” and, online, link to the month’s report page.
A flight counts as disrupted when it was cancelled or reached its destination three or more hours late, the thresholds in EU Regulation 261/2004. Figures come from the public departure boards of the airports we monitor; the report page explains the method in full.
Brand
Logo and boilerplate
SkyPaid is a flight compensation claims service for air passengers in Europe and the UK. It claims compensation for delayed, cancelled and overbooked flights under EU Regulation 261/2004 and UK261 on a no-win, no-fee basis, and publishes a monthly European flight disruption report built from live airport departure boards. SkyPaid is a claims management service, not a law firm.