Spain, Italy and Greece are posting some of the strongest capacity growth in Western Europe. Here is what the numbers tell us.
Summer 2026 international seat capacity across Western Europe is up 3.6% year on year, adding 18.5 million one-way seats across the Top 10 markets. But the story is not evenly distributed. Three countries - Spain, Italy and Greece - account for 72% of that growth, adding a combined 13.4 million seats compared to Summer 2025.
Italy leads on percentage growth at +8.9%, driven in large part by Wizz Air's +35% expansion into the market, which added over 2.2 million seats alone. Spain, the largest of the three markets at 88.7 million seats, grew 7.6%: adding more than 6.3 million one-way seats. Greece, while smaller in absolute volume at 30.1 million seats, added 1.7 million seats for +5.9% growth.
Carrier dynamics are reshaping each market differently
Across all three markets, low-cost and ultra-low-cost carriers are driving the bulk of capacity expansion.
In Spain, Ryanair remains dominant at 20.7 million seats, but the most notable mover is Wizz Air, up 50.7% to 4.8 million seats. Jet2.com also continued its steady leisure-market push, growing 8.9% to 4.5 million seats.
Italy’s carrier landscape presents an especially clear illustration of these trends. Wizz Air has moved from a secondary player to a significant force, adding 2.2 million seats to reach 8.6 million: a 35% increase. Ryanair remains the market leader at 18.8 million seats, itself up 10.1%. Legacy and flag carriers, by contrast, are largely holding position rather than expanding.
In Greece, Aegean Airlines holds first place with 3.9 million seats, but the fastest growth is coming from Wizz Air (+41.6%), Jet2.com (+14.9%), and Sky Express (+21.5%), all of which are capturing incremental leisure demand.
Wizz Air is the fastest-growing carrier across all three markets: up 50.7% in Spain, 41.6% in Greece, and 35.1% in Italy.
What the Top 10 picture reveals
Not every market is growing. Türkiye is the notable outlier in the Top 10, declining 2.8% to 53.1 million seats, a shift that may be redirecting some leisure demand back towards other Mediterranean destinations.
The United Kingdom remains the largest single market by capacity at 103.1 million international seats, growing 3.2% year on year. Germany and France both posted modest growth of 1.6% and 1.1% respectively, while the Netherlands (+2.4%), Switzerland (+0.7%) and Portugal (+3.3%) continue their steady trajectories.
The intelligence behind the numbers
The 13.4 million seat increase across Spain, Italy and Greece is not simply a post-pandemic recovery story. It reflects deliberate network planning by carriers responding to sustained leisure demand signals. The scale of Wizz Air's commitment to Italy in particular, and its acceleration in Greece, points to a carrier confident in forward booking trends.
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