Seats to Western Europe are surging this northern summer, driven by low-cost carriers, says analyst OAG.
International seat capacity across Western Europe this northern summer is up 3.6% year-on year, bolstered by the addition of some 18.5 million one-way seats across the top 10 markets, says OAG.
However, this is not evenly dispersed, with Spain, Italy and Greece accounting for 72% of this growth, or 13.4 million seats.
Italy leads the way in regards to growth, with seats capacity up 8.9% year-on-year, largely attributed to Wizz Air which has added 2.2 million seats to Italy.
Also driving growth is Ryanair which has 18.8 million seats to Spain this summer, up 10.1% on 2025.
Seats to Spain, the largest of the three markets, is up by 6.3 million, 7.6% year-on-year, driven by FR who remains dominant at 20.7 million seats.
However, W6 is growing its presence, up 50.7% to 4.8 million seats, notes OAG. Jet2.com is also having an impact, growing 8.9% to 4.5 million seats.
Greece, while a smaller market has added 1.7 million seats, a 5.9% increase compared to last summer.
Here, Aegean Airlines boasts the largest share of seats with 3.9 million, but the growth is coming from W6, up 41.6%, as well as Jet2.com and Sky Express, rising 14.9% and 21.5%, respectively.
Also seeing growth compared to last summer, albeit at a smaller level, is the UK with it up 3.2% and now sitting at 103.1 million international seats, thus making it the largest single market by capacity.
The data also shows Germany and France with modest growth of 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively, while the Netherlands is up 2.4%, Switzerland is up 0.7%, and Portugal 3.3%.
