Spain, Turkey, and Italy are the most popular European flight destinations, while the USA remains the most popular destination for intercontinental travel despite a decline in passenger numbers.

During the summer flight schedule from April to October 2025, around 68.5 million passengers departed from Germany's main airports to destinations abroad. This was 3.0 million or 4.6 percent more travelers than in the previous year. At the same time, the number of passengers departing for foreign destinations in the 2025 summer flight season remained 2.8 percent below the level of the record summer of 2019, which was followed a year later by the coronavirus-related slump in passenger numbers. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) further reports, passenger volume in domestic German air traffic fell by 0.7 percent or around 37,000 to 5.3 million passengers compared to the summer of 2024. This means that the number of passengers on domestic flights was more than half (-54.9 percent) below the level of summer 2019. For air traffic as a whole, the number of passengers in summer 2025 increased by 4.2 percent to 73.7 million compared to the previous year, which was 10.2 percent fewer passengers than in summer 2019.

Europe: Spain most popular summer destination, Turkey with strong growth

In terms of air travel to European destinations, Spain was the most popular destination in the summer of 2025 with 10.5 million passengers (+1.5 percent compared to 2024), slightly exceeding the pre-coronavirus level of 2019 (+1.0 percent). The second most popular European destination for air travelers from Germany was Turkey. With 7.7 million passengers, 7.8 percent more people flew there than in the summer of 2024 and as many as 33.7 percent more than in the summer of 2019. The third most popular destination within Europe was Italy with 5.3 million passengers. Despite an increase of 4.9 percent compared to summer 2024, 5.8 percent fewer people flew to Italy than in summer 2019. Like Turkey, Greece also significantly exceeded the levels of both summer 2024 (+6.7 percent) and summer 2019 (+27.0 percent) in the 2025 summer flight season, with 4.5 million travelers from German airports. The most popular European destinations for air travel in the summer thus all recorded growth compared to the previous year.

Intercontinental traffic: USA remains by far the most popular destination despite slight decline

In intercontinental traffic, the United States remained the most popular destination in summer 2025, with 4.5 million travelers from Germany. However, passenger volume to the US fell by 1.4 percent compared to summer 2024 and by 3.6 percent compared to summer 2019. The second most popular destination outside Europe in the summer of 2025 was Egypt with 1.4 million travelers, which was 12.3 percent more than in the summer of 2024 and 15.0 percent more than in the summer of 2019.