AESA has approved 224 flight programs for the summer season, 11.5% more

• Flight schedules are the regular planning of routes and schedules that an airline operates repeatedly each week between specific airports.
• This schedule involves airlines from 67 countries, allowing Spain's direct connection to airports in 80 countries outside the European Union.
• In the summer season 2026, the increase in operations with the United Kingdom and a new route with South Africa stand out.

Madrid, 9 April de 2026 (AESA)

The State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) has granted the authorization of 224 flight programs for the summer season, an increase of approximately 11.5% over the same period of the previous year. These authorizations are made in response to requests submitted by airlines for the IATA S26 summer season, which began on March 29.

Of the total authorized flight programs, 133 are services operated directly by airlines to third countries outside the European Union (EU) and 91 correspond to codeshare agreements, that is, alliances between airlines to jointly transport their passengers. Services between airports in EU Member States do not require prior authorisation.

Flight programs consist of a series of operations planned by an airline, with schedules and routes that are repeated weekly between specific airports, configuring a regular and systematic schedule.

The figures point to an upward trend which is also expected to be reflected in an increase in the number of commercial operations, as the authorised programmes do not cover all commercial air operations. This development is particularly important in the current international context marked by war, especially in regions of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

By type of service, of the total number of programmes, 108 correspond to scheduled flights, 25 to charter flights – a transport service where the airline sells the flight capacity to an entity for commercialisation – and the rest to codeshare operations. In addition, according to the nature of the service, 31 of the approved flight programs are intended exclusively for the transport of cargo, while the rest are for the transport of passengers.

New connections

The approved services involve airlines from around 67 countries, facilitating direct connections between Spanish airports and airports in around 80 countries outside the EU. If flights under codeshare agreements are included, the destination network is expanded to more than 130 countries.

_{Direct destinations from Spain to non-EU countries}

Compared to the previous summer season (S25), it is worth noting the increase in the market with the United Kingdom, where the number of transactions between the two countries has increased significantly. In addition, as a novelty, flights between Madrid and Johannesburg have been incorporated, establishing a new connection between Spain and South Africa that did not exist in the previous season.

 These data support the importance of Spanish civil aviation as a fundamental sector for international connection, economic growth and social development in Spain.

About AESA

AESA is the State body, attached to the Secretary of State for Transport of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, which ensures that civil aviation standards are complied with in all aeronautical activity in Spain.

The Agency has the missions of Supervision, Inspection and Management of Air Transport, Air Navigation and Airport Security. It assesses risks to transport safety and has the power to impose penalties for breaches of civil aviation rules.