UK airports prepare for busiest-ever summer – and these are the peak dates

Independent

17 hours ago

As the great escape of summer 2025 begins, airports across the UK are predicted to handle more passengers than ever in July and August.
Exclusive research by The Independent reveals Fridays, Sundays and Mondays will be the most crowded days in the terminals.
The peak days for the great getaway for all the top UK hubs can be revealed using sources including the airports themselves and flight data supplied exclusively by aviation data analyst Cirium.
For the leading Scottish airports, the second week of July will bring the biggest crowds. Several English airports will see a surge in passenger numbers in the final 10 days of July when the schools have broken up.
But the quartet of UK airports in the 30-million plus category – Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted – will see their busiest days in the second half of August.
Along with peak passenger numbers, runways will be worked hard. At Gatwick, the world's busiest single-runway airport, a plane will land or take off an average of every 95 seconds around the clock on a couple of days in August – with just 65 seconds between departures and arrivals in peak hours.
Choosing to fly on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday is likely to lead to a calmer experience. Five of the top airports are busiest on Fridays, and three each are predicted to have their peak days on Sundays and Mondays:
The main airports in Northern Ireland and Wales – Belfast International and Cardiff respectively – have already passed their peak days for summer 205. But the Welsh airport will see its busiest day for departures on 28 August, with 2,684 passengers expected to take off.
On Monday 1 September, the signal that the country is back to back to work is that London City's busiest day is expected at the start of the ninth month. On that day 89 flights with 9,195 seats will depart from the Docklands airport.
Crowd calendar: the peak dates
Friday 11 July: Edinburgh
Scotland's busiest airport is expected to handle 61,636 passengers, evenly distributed between arrivals and departures. Travellers heading off on holiday will benefit from the airport easing the 'liquids rule' from the start of this week – raising the limit from 100ml to two litres.
Monday 14 July: Glasgow
Around 15,000 passengers will depart from the Clydeside airport on a predicted 113 flights to 52 destinations. The most popular international routes from Glasgow are to Dubai, Malaga, Palma, Paris, Tenerife, Faro, Dalaman, Corfu and Toronto.
Monday 21 July: Newcastle
On Tyneside, the first Monday after the schools break up will be busiest, with 75 departing flights and up to 24,000 passengers flying through Newcastle.
Friday 25 July: Birmingham
The West Midlands hub is thriving, with 161 flights carrying more than 26,000 people departing on the final Friday of the month. In contrast with the long queues experienced by some passengers in 2024, Birmingham was the first airport this summer to relax security restrictions on liquids.
Sunday 27 July: Luton
London's fourth-biggest airport (after Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) is expecting to handle more than 31,000 passengers both arriving and departing. The busiest day for departures alone will be the following Friday 1 August, while on the last day of August almost 32,000 passengers are expected to arrive.
Fridays 15 and 22 August: Bristol
Peak departures from the busiest airport in the West are on Friday 25/Saturday 26 July. But these two August Fridays will be the busiest days of the summer with around 40,000 people coming and going.
Sunday 17 August: Gatwick
August is peak month at the Sussex holiday hub. 'There are five days over the summer period where we have 900 or more flights, all in August,' a Gatwick spokesperson tells me. The air-traffic controllers will have their work cut out on the first two Sundays, 3 and 10 August, with 904 flights on both days. Peak day for people: Sunday 17 August, with more than 160,000 passing through.
Friday 22 August: Manchester
Around 115,000 passengers, evenly split between inbound and outbound, are expected to fly out of the nation's third-busiest airport (after Heathrow and Gatwick). The top destinations are mostly Mediterranean sunspots – Palma, Alicante, Antalya and Dalaman – plus Dubai, thanks to the three daily Airbus A380 arrivals and departures on Emirates.
Monday 25 August: Liverpool
According to Cirium, departing flights and seats will be at a maximum on Monday 28 July, with 66 flights and more than 12,000 seats. But the peak day nominated by Liverpool John Lennon airport is 25 August, the final bank holiday before Christmas.
Friday 29 August: Heathrow
The UK's busiest airport has declined to specify when it expects the most passengers, but according to Cirium the final Friday in August will see a peak of 685 flights with 151,155 seats. How many of them will be occupied is uncertain. The total of arriving and departing passengers may exceed the all-time peak of 269,000 recorded on 18 August 2024 – which was achieved partly due to travellers attending Taylor Swift's performances at Wembley Stadium.
Sunday 31 August: Stansted
Essex's leading international airport is likely to have its busiest-ever month in August. In the previous two summers, the third Friday in August has been busiest at Stansted. But Cirium reports the last day of the month will be peak departures: 284 flights outbound with more than 54,000 seats. With holidaymakers returning en masse before the start of September, expect well over 100,000 passing through.