Reviewed on 29 October 2026
Seasonal flights: when summer and winter routes start and end
Airlines plan their schedules in two seasons that change with the clocks: from late March to late October, and from late October to late March.
When a route on FlyDirecto is marked seasonal, the airline doesn’t fly it all year round, only for part of it: usually the summer for beach and island destinations, or the winter for a few specific destinations. Knowing how airline seasons work helps you understand why a direct flight “disappears” for a few months and when it usually comes back.
The two airline seasons
Airlines and airports don’t plan their schedules month by month but in two seasons a year, set out in IATA’s Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines (IATA is the international airline association). Airport slot coordinators, such as the one in the Netherlands, describe them like this:
| Season | Starts | Ends |
|---|---|---|
| Summer (IATA) | Last Sunday of March | Last Saturday of October |
| Winter (IATA) | Last Sunday of October | Last Saturday of March |
It’s no coincidence that they match the clock change: in the European Union, summer time starts on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October (Directive 2000/84/EC). That weekend, the clocks and many route schedules change at the same time.
Upcoming dates
| Season | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Winter 2026/27 | 25/10/2026 | 27/03/2027 |
| Summer 2027 | 28/03/2027 | 30/10/2027 |
| Winter 2027/28 | 31/10/2027 | 25/03/2028 |
A “summer” route may start later than the beginning of the season (in June, for example) and end earlier (in September): each airline sets its own dates within the season.
Which routes from Spain are seasonal
According to FlyDirecto’s data of 28/10/2026, of the 2,211 direct routes from Spanish airports, 672 are seasonal and 1,480 operate year-round (for 59 the source doesn’t say). There are big differences between airports:
| Airport | Seasonal routes |
|---|---|
| Reus | Every route with data |
| Menorca | 95% |
| Ibiza | 87% |
| Palma de Mallorca | 61% |
| Madrid | 11% |
| Seville | 8% |
Summer holiday airports, especially in the Balearic Islands and on the Catalan coast, have the most seasonal routes. The big airports and those in the Canary Islands, on the other hand, keep most of their routes all year. By country, most seasonal routes go to destinations in Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany.
How to plan a trip on a seasonal route
- Check whether your route is seasonal. Each route page and destination list on FlyDirecto shows “Year-round” or “Seasonal”.
- Look up the specific month. The Where can I fly in a given month? tool shows destinations with direct tickets on sale for the month you choose.
- Confirm the dates with the airline before booking accommodation: the airline sets the first and last flight of each season.
- If it isn’t on sale yet, it hasn’t necessarily gone. Airlines publish their schedules in advance, but not all at the same time; a summer route may not appear yet in autumn.
- Look at alternatives. If your route doesn’t operate on your dates, compare nearby airports or find which airports have direct flights to your destination.
How FlyDirecto shows it
Season information comes from Wikipedia’s destination tables, which distinguish between regular and seasonal routes. None of our sources gives the exact months of each route, so we don’t show them: we’d rather say “seasonal” than make up dates. We explain this in our methodology.