February flights surge as couples and families travel for holidays

February saw air traffic increase by 2,156 flights versus last February, up by 1.3% as travellers sought trips abroad in the month of Valentine’s Day and half term school holidays.

Throughout the month, NATS safely handled 168,119 flights, up from 165,963 the year before, an average of 6,004 flights a day.

Non-Transatlantic Overflights (flights that traverse UK airspace but do not stop at UK airports) increased again this month, up by 12%. Within this sector, the most popular routes were Ireland to Poland, Ireland to Italy and France to Ireland. Domestic flights decreased by 3.4% on the same month last year.

While NATS handled 24% of all European traffic during February it was responsible for only 2% of overall delay, which includes weather-related delay. 99.2% of flights had no NATS attributable delay.

Steve Fox, Director Operations Control said:

“February was a busy month for UK skies, continuing the trend of an increase in flights for 2026. As we come to the end of the ski season, we’re looking ahead to the Easter holiday and to the summer schedule, which starts at the end of March. As ever, we will continue to ensure operations are as resilient as possible going into the busy season.”