“The methodology of the Airline ImPax Report is sound and the data comprehensive. Delays are organised using logical segmentation, which humanises the scope of the disruption data, making it highly useful and actionable for the aviation industry.”
Henry Harteveldt, President, Atmosphere Research Group
Latest: September 2025
This month’s report analyses the disruption data of 293 airlines totalling 625,196 disrupted flights, across 2,918,329 planned flights, globally.
September 2025 marked a partial recovery in global aviation stability. Flight volumes fell 7.5% from August as carriers adjusted capacity amid economic and seasonal slowdowns. Despite fewer flights, overall disruptions dropped by more than 20%, while cancellations declined 14%, signaling improved operational management following summer chaos. Europe grappled with cyberattacks and drone incidents; ME&A faced geopolitical and infrastructure pressures; and Latin America contended with airline scheduling issues. Although reliability improved, persistent cyber, staffing, and supply chain risks kept global aviation resilience under scrutiny.
September 2025 marked a partial recovery in global aviation stability. Flight volumes fell 7.5% from August as carriers adjusted capacity amid economic and seasonal slowdowns. Despite fewer flights, overall disruptions dropped by more than 20%, while cancellations declined 14%, signaling improved operational management following summer chaos. Europe grappled with cyberattacks and drone incidents; ME&A faced geopolitical and infrastructure pressures; and Latin America contended with airline scheduling issues. Although reliability improved, persistent cyber, staffing, and supply chain risks kept global aviation resilience under scrutiny.
In August 2025, global aviation endured major disruptions yet showed improved reliability. United Airlines’ tech outage delayed 1,000+ flights, Air Canada’s strike grounded 130,000 passengers daily, and Typhoon Podul forced cancellations in Taiwan. Newark ATC failures, weather chaos, a United diversion to Greenland, and Virgin Australia’s lavatory breakdown added to turmoil. Despite this, global flight volumes dipped just 1.2%, delays dropped 10% versus July, and cancellations improved 30%. Pakistan’s airspace ban further strained routes, but overall, the industry demonstrated resilience, with operational performance improving month-on-month despite headline-grabbing crises across North America, Asia, and Australia.
In July 2025, global aviation was severely disrupted across all regions. Europe faced a crippling French ATC strike and a UK radar failure, grounding thousands of flights. In the U.S., storms, IT failures, and extreme turbulence caused mass delays and injuries. Asia-Pacific contended with typhoons and monsoon-related disruptions, notably in Hong Kong. While Latin America saw no major crises, capacity constraints stressed operations. The Middle East & Africa were hit hardest by conflict-driven airspace closures. Disruptions rose 17.5% globally—far outpacing the 6.5% increase in flight volumes—with cancellations up over 20%, making July one of aviation’s most chaotic months on record.
In June 2025, global air travel was severely impacted by geopolitical tensions, weather events, and operational failures. Middle East airspace closures disrupted APAC, ME&A, Europe, and North America, forcing thousands of reroutes. Storms hit major hubs in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, while ATC and tech issues further strained networks. Disruptions rose sharply—up to 20% in some regions—despite modest changes in flight volumes, affecting millions of passengers worldwide.
May 2025 was an eventful month for the aviation industry, marked by a series of disruptions across key global regions. Europe continued to grapple with strikes at major hubs, while in the U.S., power outages and a shortage of maintenance crews grounded over 4,000 flights across two Tier 1 carriers. In APAC, severe weather and infrastructure issues led to further delays, and in the Middle East, ongoing security concerns prompted major airlines to suspend select routes.
April 2025 saw a number of high profile aviation disruptions including the major Iberian outage that grounded 500 flights, turmoil in Newark that cancelled several hundred flights and has triggered plans to update systems over the coming years, and escalating tensions between India and Pakistan that has seen almost 30 airports pausing operations. Flight volumes have remained steady month-on-month, with a +15% in overall disrupted passengers.
Despite disruptive events that included a major fire in Heathrow impacting 200,000 passengers, ATC strikes in central Europe, and adverse weather systems in North America and the broader APAC region, flight cancellation percentages remained steady overall (MoM) but the impact skewed toward Tier 1 carriers with higher flight volumes. Therefore passengers affected by cancellations increased by almost 10% (+270K) globally.
Although February saw aviation labour strikes in Europe, layoffs in North America, and terrifying occurrences that included the flipping of a Delta flight upon landing, there was a 19% decrease in passengers impacted by medium and major delays, and cancellations.
January is a big month as it is a hangover of northern hemisphere holiday travel, southern hemisphere seasonal travel, and it leads into Chinese New Year. While flight volumes and disrupted flights remained steady (MoM). There was a 38% increase in passengers impacted by a cancelled flight. Let’s dig into the data!
December – and the holiday season – saw a 6% increase in overall flight volumes and a 19% increase in disrupted flights worldwide. This resulted in 100K more passengers that experienced a cancelled flight compared to November.
November saw a decrease in overall flight volumes by 12% and a 13% decrease in disrupted flights, but only a 7% drop in disrupted passengers compared to last month. Let’s dig into the data!
October – which included some notable storms – saw an increase in overall flight volumes by 3% but a decrease in disruptions by approx. 12% decrease in disrupted flights, with a >20% decrease in disrupted passengers compared to last month.
As Summer, peak-season comes to a close, September saw a decrease in overall flight volumes by 8% resulting in a >25% decrease in disrupted flights, and approx. 15m less disrupted passengers compared to last month.
While flight volumes sustained (+3m) month-on-month, there were an estimated 13 million less passengers disrupted by medium/major delays and cancellations worldwide. Let’s dig into the data!
Due to a global outage caused by a routine update thousands of flights were grounded resulting in a 19% increase in disruptions month-on-month. Let’s dig into the data!
Peak holiday travel is coming to a close in the Northern Hemisphere but disruptive weather systems persist. High volume summer travel continues in the Southern Hemisphere. Check out the full report!
