✈️ Excellent Air Shifts Route Focus During Peak Season
Excellent Air’s flight volume declined during the middle of the 2026 Mediterranean peak season, while its departure airport distribution became more dispersed. Activity at airports associated with the French Riviera decreased, while Olbia, Málaga, and Zurich entered the list of leading departure points. Avi-Go data show that from July 15 to August 13, the operator completed 297 flights, averaging 9.9 per day. Compared with 415 flights and a daily average of 13.8 from June 15 to July 14, this represented a decrease of 118 flights, or 28.4%. Nice remained the leading departure airport, but flight volume fell from 32 to 19; Cannes declined from 19 to 6, while Paris Le Bourget dropped out of the Top 10 for the period. Meanwhile, Olbia entered the Top 10 with 10 flights, Málaga with 8, and Zurich with 6. The concentration of flights among the top 10 departure airports also fell from 41.7% to 37.4%, indicating that capacity during this window was not concentrated solely at a small number of traditional hubs.
Impact: Demand for ground handling services related to Nice and Cannes came under pressure during this window, with their combined flight volume falling from 51 to 25. Excellent Air’s route network became more dispersed. Although newly ranked airports such as Olbia and Málaga absorbed some activity, their individual volumes were not yet sufficient to offset the decline at French Riviera airports. The simultaneous decreases in total flight volume and Top 10 concentration also indicate that the operator’s support requirements were more widely distributed across long-tail airports.
Recommendation: Excellent Air should review the customer itineraries and aircraft deployment associated with the 13-flight decrease at Nice and the 13-flight decrease at Cannes, while continuing to monitor whether Olbia and Málaga can maintain their Top 10 positions in the second half of August 2026. Relevant ground handling providers should dynamically schedule personnel and support shifts based on actual missions rather than directly carrying over the resource allocation used from June 15 to July 14.