Spain's summer travel sees record road traffic and airport delay spikes

Spain’s traffic authority (DGT) forecasts more than 100 million road journeys during the July‑August holiday period and has identified four peak weekends – July 3‑5, July 31‑August 2, August 14‑16 and August 28‑31 – when congestion is expected to be highest. It will boost police patrols, mobile speed cameras and temporary traffic measures, aiming to reduce accidents after a 6 % drop in fatal crashes during the previous summer operation.

At the same time, British travellers to Spain are encountering sharp increases in flight delays. AirAdvisor data show delay rates rising from 3.66 % to 7.60 % at Palma de Mallorca and from 4.39 % to 11.73 % at Alicante‑Elche, meaning roughly one in nine departures is over an hour late with average wait times of 124 minutes. The surge follows new EU Entry/Exit System border checks and a broader rise in short‑haul cancellations across European airports. Airlines cannot cite fuel‑price spikes as an "extraordinary circumstance" to avoid compensation under UK261 rules.