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…
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