Punctuality ranking at airports: How many passengers experienced delays in Malaga in 2025?

It's the worst of surprises when you're on a high from the start of a dream trip. Arriving at the airport and starting to receive messages ... or seeing on the information screens that the flight is not going to depart on time generates more than just unease. AirHelp, the technology company that enhances the passenger experience during potential flight disruptions, has analyzed incidents from the past year and presented its annual report on airline punctuality in Europe and Spain. It points out that at Malaga airport, 3.35 million passengers were affected by delays and cancellations out of the more than 26 million that this airport facility will close with. However, AirHelp notes that only 96,000 of them will be entitled to compensation. This data confirms that the delays did not reach the three hours stipulated by the CE261 regulation, which governs compensations for flights departing from the EU.

Nationally, this report assures that during 2025 more than 935 million passengers passed through European airports, which is a decrease of 2.6% compared to the previous year. Now improving, the data from 2024, 25.69% of them suffered delays or cancellations of their flight and, in addition, almost 11 million were able to claim financial compensation for it based on CE261, which regulates flights departing from the EU.

Furthermore, they indicate that 76% of flights operated on time, while more than 34 million passengers were affected by delays or cancellations. In the case of Malaga, the punctuality rate established by this ranking is 71.5%, placing it 19th in the ranking, according to AirHelp.

The day with the highest number of interruptions was July 3, due to an air traffic controllers' strike in France

The study makes it clear that although air activity in Spain has remained more or less stable compared to 2024, when there were just 1,500 fewer flights, the punctuality of Spanish runways has increased by 1.3%. "A notable improvement that is also very reflected in the passengers entitled to compensation for delays and cancellations in our country, improving the data from 2022 to 2025, going from 1.39 million to 1.25 million in 2024," they specify.

Moreover, they explain that in terms of passenger volume, Spain is the EU country with the most registered movements, only surpassed in Europe by the United Kingdom. They note that in terms of punctuality, the Asturias airport stands out especially, which, with approximately 840,000 passengers, meets its schedules in 89% of the flights.

Among the major airports, Bilbao once again ranks as one of the most punctual in Spain. Of the more than three million passengers who flew from the Basque airport, only 14.3% experienced some type of incident. On the opposite side is Palma de Mallorca, the country's third airport, with the highest rate of delays: a 34% incidence, affecting more than five million passengers. They are followed by Reus (30.8%) and Murcia (28.5%). Among the major Spanish airports, punctuality reaches 77.1% at Madrid-Barajas and 76.9% at Barcelona-El Prat.

At the European level, Norway, Sweden, and Estonia lead in airline punctuality, with interruption rates below 18%. In contrast, Greece (33.2%); France (29.6%), and Portugal (35.6%) present the worst records, according to this study.

AirHelp warns that as usual, the summer months concentrate the highest volume of air traffic and also the highest rates of incidents, especially July, August, and September, even October. Moreover, they point out that in Spain, the day with the most interruptions was July 3, due to a strike by air traffic controllers in France that caused the cancellation of nearly a hundred flights in Spain.