Germany: record number of flight cancellations and delays in 2022

The flight year 2022 was marked by chaotic conditions at airlines and airports, especially in the summer.

The massive demand for flights following the pandemic caused thousands of flight delays and cancellations. In Germany, the situation was particularly tense.

No flight year like any other

The number of cancelled departures from Germany in the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 was almost 25 per cent higher than in the same period in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. There is a smaller difference in delay times between years. In the same period in 2019, 21.21 per cent of departures from Germany had a minimum delay time of 15 minutes. In 2022, it was 23.06 per cent. In the summer period from 1 June to 31 August 2022, the number of cancelled departures from Germany was 44 per cent higher than in the same period in 2019. In the summer of 2019, 25.75 per cent of all departures from Germany had a minimum delay time of 15 minutes. In 2022, it was 30.65 per cent.

If you compare the ten European countries with the most departures in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2022, 13,311 flights were cancelled in Germany. That is the most flights in the whole of Europe. In terms of the total number of departures, Germany ranks third with 2.04 per cent of cancelled flights. Only in the Netherlands (2.15 per cent) and Norway (2.44 per cent) were more flights cancelled in percentage terms. At around one per cent of cancelled flights, Flightright speaks of a normal ratio. A total of 150,586 departures from Germany (23.06 per cent) had a minimum delay time of 15 minutes.

German airlines perform poorly

As the analysis by airlines shows, three of the seven airlines with the highest percentage of cancellations come from Germany. It is striking that all three airlines belong to the Lufthansa Group. In terms of delays, Lufthansa stands out above all, with 31.78 per cent of all departures and thus almost every third flight having a minimum delay time of 15 minutes. Low-cost providers such as EasyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air performed better than premium airlines such as Lufthansa, KLM and British Airways.

Great chaos at German airports

Four of the seven European airports with the highest percentage of cancellations in 2022 were in Germany. The Düsseldorf Airport made it to the inglorious first place with 2.45 per cent of cancelled flights, and the Frankfurt Airport just missed the podium with 2.14 per cent and landed in fourth place. Düsseldorf and Frankfurt airports thus had more than twice as many cancellations as usual in 2022. Frankfurt Airport also had the second most cancellations in Europe in absolute terms after Amsterdam Airport, with 3,986 flight cancellations in 2022. In terms of absolute departures with delays, Frankfurt Airport is even the leader with 59,190 delayed departures. The airports were often unprepared for such a rush of passengers and had hired too few staff after the peak of the pandemic.