Air travel across Europe is again under pressure, with a fresh wave of delays and cancellations rippling through major hubs in Spain, France, Austria and beyond. On 12 February and into 13 February 2026, operational disruption, poor weather and staffing constraints combined to delay more than two thousand flights and cancel several dozen services, hitting low cost and long haul carriers alike. Passengers flying with Ryanair, Wizz Air, Cathay Pacific and other airlines through Barcelona, Paris and a string of other European airports have faced missed connections, overnight stays and complicated rebooking battles at the height of the winter travel season.
What Happened: A Patchwork of Local Problems, One Continental Mess
The latest disruption is not the result of a single dramatic incident, but rather a patchwork of local pressures converging on the same few days. In Spain, more than 148 flights were cancelled on 12 February across key airports including Barcelona, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Bilbao and Ibiza. Barcelona El Prat saw a particularly high concentration of cancellations that affected both inbound and outbound services, while Madrid Barajas experienced a mix of domestic and international flight cuts that quickly clogged rebooking channels and overwhelmed customer service desks.
Further north, France was grappling with its own problems. On 12 February, Air France alone delayed 193 flights and cancelled 12 across airports such as Toulouse, Nice and Paris, as heavy rainfall, fog and low cloud reduced visibility and constrained operations. These issues created secondary knock on effects for other carriers sharing crowded airspace and scarce take off and landing slots, particularly at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly, which serve as key transfer points for both intra European and long haul itineraries.
Austria has been part of the same weather dominated pattern affecting central Europe this February, with winter conditions and air traffic control restrictions periodically slowing traffic into Vienna and other regional airports. While disruptions there are on a smaller numerical scale than in Spain and France, they contribute to a domino effect across airline networks, especially for carriers using Vienna as a transfer point between eastern and western Europe.
Taken together, the latest figures from flight compensation and disruption trackers show Europe registering more than a thousand delays and several dozen cancellations in a single day, with Spanish and French hubs among the worst affected. For passengers, the distinction between delay and cancellation is academic: the result is missed business meetings, cut short holidays and forced overnight stays in airport hotels that are already running near capacity.
Ryanair, Wizz Air, Cathay Pacific and Others Caught in the Turbulence
Although national carriers such as Air France have drawn much of the attention, the disruption has spilled across airline business models and price points. Ryanair, Europe’s largest low cost airline, has been particularly exposed. Its dense, high frequency network across secondary and major European airports means that even localized slowdowns can cascade into dozens of late running rotations. Ryanair has already warned repeatedly that chronic air traffic control staffing shortfalls in countries including France and Spain are leading to record levels of delays and knock on cancellations across its network.
Wizz Air, a key player in central and eastern Europe with an expanding footprint in western European markets, has also been hit where its flights intersect with the troubled hubs in Spain and France. While precise real time tallies shift by the hour, disruption monitors tracking the period around 12 and 13 February list Wizz Air among the carriers facing notable numbers of delayed and cancelled services, particularly on routes linking central European cities to Mediterranean destinations and major western hubs.
Long haul carriers such as Cathay Pacific are likewise not immune. Even when their own operations are robust, flights into and out of European gateways depend on scarce runway capacity and regulated arrival and departure flows. When hubs like Paris Charles de Gaulle or Barcelona El Prat are operating under weather or traffic restrictions, inbound Asia Europe flights can be held, diverted or subjected to extended ground waits, pushing crews toward duty time limits and putting connections to onward European services at risk.
Other major airlines, from legacy brands to low cost competitors, have seen their schedules fray in similar ways. Recent disruption reports for Europe list dozens of airlines among the affected, including flag carriers like Iberia and KLM, pan European low cost groups, and long haul operators reliant on European transit traffic. For travellers, the airline logo on the tail has mattered less than the unfortunate coincidence of departure time, route and airport on a difficult winter day.
Barcelona, Paris and Other Key Hubs Under Strain
The geography of the disruption has followed familiar patterns. Barcelona and Madrid have once again emerged as Spanish focal points. Barcelona, a major holiday, business and transfer airport, recorded extensive cancellations and more than one hundred delays on recent peak disruption days this winter. Spain’s second city is particularly sensitive to operational hiccups because many airlines use tight turnarounds there; a delayed early morning arrival can reverberate through multiple subsequent departures.
Madrid Barajas, the country’s main intercontinental hub, has faced its own share of disrupted flights. This affects not just Iberian domestic and European services, but also connections to Latin America, North America and parts of Africa. When Barajas experiences waves of cancellations, passengers travelling on multi sector tickets find themselves stranded mid journey, with limited same day alternative options due to busy transatlantic and long haul schedules.
In France, the impact has spread across a constellation of airports. Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly have seen schedules reshuffled as airlines manage weather constraints and slot restrictions. Regional bases such as Nice and Toulouse have also faced heavy weather and visibility challenges, with some services cancelled outright rather than risk lengthy airborne and ground holding. The result is crowded terminals, long queues at service counters and a backlog of passengers seeking hotel rooms near already busy city centres and resort towns.
Elsewhere in Europe, winter weather and infrastructure strain have periodically squeezed operations in countries including Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. Recent days have seen hundreds of delays in Poland alone after a bout of snow and low temperatures, with carriers such as Wizz Air and Ryanair among those most affected by late running schedules. These additional pockets of local disruption feed into the wider European picture, reducing the margin of flexibility available to airlines trying to reposition aircraft and crews.
Why So Many Flights Are Delayed: Weather, Staffing and Airspace Bottlenecks
Behind the current disruption lies a mix of meteorological and structural factors. February is traditionally a challenging month for European aviation, with winter storms, snow, ice and fog frequently affecting operations from the Iberian Peninsula to central and eastern Europe. In the recent wave of problems, heavy rainfall and low cloud in France and unsettled conditions across parts of Spain and central Europe have forced air traffic controllers and airport operators to reduce capacity to maintain safety margins.
However, weather is only part of the story. Airlines and industry groups have been warning for several seasons about chronic staffing shortages in European air traffic control centres. Ryanair, for example, has highlighted in recent statements that millions of its passengers were affected by air traffic control failures and staffing problems in 2025, singling out France and Spain among the most problematic states. These shortfalls mean that when bad weather hits, there is less operational resilience and fewer options to work around local restrictions.
Airlines themselves are also dealing with tighter staffing and fleet utilization than before the pandemic. Many carriers trimmed networks and workforces during 2020 and 2021, then raced to restore capacity when demand bounced back faster than expected. While the situation has improved, some airlines still operate with thinner buffers. This makes it harder to absorb a day of intense disruption without allowing delays to spill over into the following day’s rotations.
Add to this an increasingly crowded European sky. Popular corridors linking the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and central Europe are congested even on ordinary days. When French airspace is partially restricted by weather or local regulations, overflights that merely pass through French skies can be delayed or rerouted, causing knock on effects in countries hundreds of kilometres away. That is one reason why passengers departing from airports not directly affected by storms can still find their flight delayed due to a “regulation” or “air traffic control” notice on departure boards.
What This Means for Travellers on Ryanair, Wizz Air, Cathay Pacific and Others
For individual travellers, the statistics translate into fraught hours at departure gates, hurried phone calls to hotels and tour operators, and uncertainty about when journeys can be completed. Ryanair and Wizz Air passengers have reported long queues at customer service desks and difficulty reaching call centres during peak disruption windows. Because many low cost tickets are sold on a point to point basis rather than as protected connections, travellers with self arranged onward flights can find themselves shouldering the cost of missed legs that are technically unrelated in airline systems.
Passengers on full service and long haul carriers, including Cathay Pacific and European legacy airlines, may benefit from more extensive rebooking options when connections through hubs like Paris or Barcelona are missed. However, when large numbers of flights are delayed or cancelled at once, even these networks can struggle to find seats on later services, forcing overnight stays or alternative routings via secondary hubs far from the original itinerary.
Airports, too, come under strain. Security and border queues lengthen as peak passenger flows are stretched over longer time frames. Baggage systems must cope with unsorted luggage from missed flights, and lounges fill with stranded travellers. Hotels near major hubs quickly reach capacity. For those travelling with families or on time sensitive business, the lack of clear and timely information can be as stressful as the actual delay.
Yet there are modest silver linings. Disruption of this scale tends to push airlines and airports to refine communication protocols, improve real time notifications via apps and display boards, and strengthen coordination with air traffic control. Over recent seasons, many carriers have expanded digital self service tools that allow passengers to request rebooking, refunds or vouchers without queuing for an agent, softening the blow when congestion hits.
Passenger Rights and Compensation Under EU Rules
One of the most important aspects of any large scale disruption in Europe is the framework of passenger rights. Under European Union Regulation 261, travellers departing from EU airports, or arriving on EU carriers, may be entitled to care and in many cases financial compensation when flights are significantly delayed or cancelled, unless the cause is deemed to be extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline’s control. The regulation covers key hubs such as Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and Vienna, as well as a wide network of regional airports.
In practical terms, passengers caught up in the latest wave of disruption should keep detailed records of their journey: boarding passes, booking confirmations, receipts for food or hotel stays, and any written communication from the airline explaining the cause of the delay or cancellation. This documentation can be crucial when submitting a claim directly to the airline or through a specialist claim firm. In some jurisdictions, travellers have several years to pursue eligible claims, although many prefer to resolve matters as soon as possible.
Beyond potential compensation, airlines must generally provide care during long delays, including meals and refreshments, and hotel accommodation when an overnight stay becomes necessary because of a cancelled or heavily delayed flight. The precise obligations depend on flight length and delay duration, but in large disruption events authorities regularly remind carriers of their responsibilities. Travellers who are unsure of their entitlements are advised to consult official passenger rights guidance issued at airports and by national aviation regulators.
It is also worth noting that low cost status does not exempt airlines from these obligations. Ryanair, Wizz Air and other budget carriers operating within the EU are subject to the same regulatory framework as national flag carriers. While enforcement and customer service experiences may vary, the underlying legal protections are broadly the same for all qualifying passengers.
How to Navigate Europe’s Ongoing Disruption
With European skies likely to remain busy and winter weather still a factor into late February, travellers planning imminent trips should anticipate potential disruption rather than treating it as an outlier. Building extra time into itineraries, particularly when connecting between separate tickets or different airlines, can significantly reduce the risk of missed onward travel. Whenever possible, booking protected connections on a single ticket and allowing generous layovers at crowded hubs like Paris and Barcelona can provide more options if things go wrong.
Monitoring flight status early and often has become essential. Most airlines now push near real time updates through their mobile apps and text alerts, and many airports maintain live departure and arrival boards online. Checking these sources the day before departure and again before leaving for the airport can help travellers spot early signs of disruption and adjust plans. In some cases, airlines may offer no fee changes or flexible rebooking when forecasts suggest major operational problems ahead.
Travel insurance is another layer of protection worth reviewing. Policies vary widely, but some cover additional accommodation and transport costs resulting from significant delays or cancellations, especially when caused by weather or air traffic control issues. Passengers should read terms closely to understand what is and is not covered, and keep all receipts for out of pocket expenses they hope to claim back later.
Ultimately, the latest wave of flight delays and cancellations underscores a broader reality: European aviation continues to operate close to the limits of its infrastructure and staffing capacity, particularly in busy cross border airspace over countries like France and Spain. Until structural issues around air traffic control staffing, airport capacity and airline resilience are fully addressed, travellers can expect periodic surges of disruption. Being informed, prepared and proactive remains the best strategy for navigating an increasingly unpredictable sky.