At a quick glance, Europe's three most prominent airline groups have been enjoying a significantly strong summer this year with bolstered capacities across their route networks compared to last summer. But despite these increased efforts, these airlines are still lagging a fair bit compared to pre-pandemic numbers - highlighting how everyone still has some distance to cover before reaching previous levels of flying.

A summer still lacking for Europe's Big Three

When comparing the July-to-September quarter of this year - although it hasn't precisely ended yet, and schedules are always subject to changes, all airlines in the Lufthansa Group are still offering a scheduled seat capacity that is approximately 12% less than the same quarter of 2019. This will be the widest lag from pre-pandemic levels among Europe's Big Three, and the airline group's top 10 busiest airports are as follows:

Photo: SWISS

Up next is all carriers in the International Airlines Group (IAG), where their totaled scheduled seat capacity for this year's summer season is about 7% behind the same period three years ago, with the top 10 busiest airports for this airline group being:

And then there's the third European airline group featuring all the carriers in the Air France-KLM assemble. This one has the smallest gap compared to the other two airline groups as the totaled scheduled seat capacity for all three carriers for the July-to-September quarter this year was only 2% behind pre-pandemic levels. As for the top 10 busiest airports in this period, it's as follows:

 Photo: Tupungato | Shutterstock

Expansions here, shrinkages there

It's worth noting that the capacity changes vary by market, as the Lufthansa Group has cut capacity at Munich Airport by a massive 20% since 2019. Yet on the other hand, the capacity for Frankfurt Airport and Vienna Airport were only slashed by 10% and 9%, respectively. A similar situation was painted for the Air France-KLM Group, which significantly downsized capacity at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport compared to pre-pandemic times.

But thanks to the rapid expansion of Transavia, the Air France-KLM Group has grown at Paris Orly Airport. And within IAG, low-cost carrier Vueling has also contributed to the significant capacity growth at Paris Orly. The IAG has further enhanced capacities in big Spanish markets such as Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, and Malaga. Yet among IAG's top 10 airports, it's surprising to see London Gatwick Airport receiving the heaviest cut.

Closing the pre-pandemic gap

While these capacity changes - regardless of an unexpected increase or decrease, highlight this summer's trends and the overall outlook for Europe's Big Three, the results still signal that all three major airline groups are inching relatively closer to pre-pandemic levels. Albeit it could be too early to assume, perhaps the Air France-KLM Group could be the first to reach those levels since the difference is only about 2%.

Photo: Ceri Breeze | Shutterstock

The French-Dutch group has also been discussing the possibility of buying TAP Air Portugal, which would undoubtedly see it expanding beyond pre-pandemic levels should it happen. Big network changes are also seemingly on the horizon for the other two groups, with the Lufthansa Group currently in proceedings to invest in ITA Airways, and IAG is still banking on obtaining approval to buy over Air Europa.