School holiday starts and public holidays: peak days with extra flights and charters

Friday afternoon, the last day of school in a big German state: the highways to the airport are jammed, long lines form in the terminal – and out at the fence, it is busy too. School holiday starts and public holidays are among the most exciting days for plane spotting. Leisure airlines add extra rotations, leased jets from other operators fill capacity gaps, and at some airports you see carriers that never show up there the rest of the year. This guide shows you how peak days come about, how to find them in the calendar and how to make the most of them at the fence.

Peak days in one sentence

Peak days happen whenever a great many people travel at the same time – and airlines put more aircraft in the air than they use day to day. That happens at the start and end of the big school holidays, around Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, on long weekends with bridge days (days off between a public holiday and the weekend) and in winter sports regions on the Saturdays of the ski season. For spotters, the raw number of movements matters less than the mix: more traffic brings more variety, and variety brings new registrations into your hangar.

How the staggered holiday schedule works

So that all of Germany doesn’t head off on vacation on the same day, the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) spreads the summer holidays over a long period. The states are divided into five groups whose start dates rotate, so that not everyone leaves or comes back at the same time:

Group	States	What it means for spotters
I	Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein	Holiday start at BER and Hamburg, often with many destinations in southern Europe
II	Bremen, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia	Hannover, Bremen, Leipzig/Halle and Dresden in focus
III	North Rhine-Westphalia	the most populous state alone in a group – Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Dortmund at full load
IV	Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland	Frankfurt gets a vacation wave on top of its hub traffic
V	Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria	traditionally last because of the Pentecost holidays – Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg follow late

The groups take turns with the start date over the years; only Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg always come last because of their Pentecost holidays. The KMK sets the summer holidays far in advance. The states set the Easter, fall and Christmas holidays themselves, which is why those are more spread out. You can find the current dates collected on the KMK website.

What this means for you: A look at the holiday calendar doesn’t replace schedule research, but it tells you where to look. When North Rhine-Westphalia starts its holidays, Düsseldorf Airport is an obvious destination. When Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg follow, take a look at Munich or Stuttgart.

What is different on peak days

More rotations, more destinations

Leisure airlines such as Condor, TUIfly, Discover Airlines, SunExpress or Marabu live off the vacation business. At the start of the holidays they deploy their fleet as densely as possible, and many destinations are served only in season or on certain days of the week. Low-cost carriers such as Eurowings or easyJet add to that, thickening their holiday routes in the peak weeks. The basic rhythm is set by the IATA summer and winter schedule: the summer schedule begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Saturday in October.

Leased jets in foreign colors

The most exciting phenomenon for spotters is the wet lease: an airline rents an aircraft with crew from another operator to cover a seasonal peak. The aircraft then flies under the client’s flight number but often carries the livery and registration of its actual operator. Typical providers of such capacity are charter and ACMI specialists such as Enter Air or Smartwings – which partners actually fly in a given season changes from year to year, though. The article Wet lease explained explains how the model works.

True charter flights

Besides scheduled holiday traffic, there are flights that are booked entirely by a tour operator, a club or a company. Around big sporting events, trade shows or pilgrimages, such charters also show up at airports where that operator never lands otherwise. Where exactly the line between charter and scheduled flights runs is described in the guide Charter flights and scheduled flights.

Peak days through the year

Not every peak day looks the same. Depending on the season, airports, destination areas and days of the week shift.

Occasion	Typical period	Where it is worth it	What you can expect
Easter holidays	March/April, depending on Easter	big airports with holiday destinations	first wave to the south, seasonal routes just starting up
Pentecost and bridge days	May/June	Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg especially, otherwise nationwide	short trips, many city destinations, busy weekend shoulder hours
Summer holiday start	end of June to early August, staggered	the airport of the state that is just starting	densest holiday fleet, wet-lease jets, extra rotations
Fall holidays	October, very different by state	leisure airports, destinations with autumn sun	last weeks of the summer schedule, partly already winding down
Christmas and New Year	end of December to early January	hubs and leisure airports	long-haul trips, family visits, winter destinations
Winter Saturdays	December to April	Alpine airports such as Salzburg	ski charters from all over Europe in waves

Special case Alps: the winter Saturday

A classic among spotters is the winter Saturday at Alpine airports. Because many accommodations in the ski resorts are rented by the week from Saturday to Saturday, many guests leave and new ones arrive on that day. In Salzburg, charter and leisure airlines from the UK, Scandinavia and other countries then bring aircraft into town that rarely show up during the week. On such days the observation deck is considered a meeting point for the scene. The Innsbruck observation deck is also worth a look in the ski season.

Foreign holidays, foreign airlines

Your own school holidays are only part of the picture. Neighboring countries have holiday peaks too, and they affect airports near the border and vacation destinations. At the big leisure airports of southern Europe, airlines from half of Europe then meet: at Palma de Mallorca Airport, German, British, Scandinavian and Dutch leisure airlines stand side by side in high season. If you are spending your vacation in such a region anyway, the guides Plane spotting in Mallorca and Planning a spotting vacation will help.

Hub or leisure airport?

At a big hub like Frankfurt Airport, the start of the holidays is less noticeable because traffic is dense anyway. Long-haul, connecting passengers and cargo carry on as usual, and the vacation traffic comes on top. At an airport with a high share of leisure traffic, on the other hand, the difference between a weekday and the start of the holidays is dramatic – and at small regional airports it is often biggest, because there is little going on there during the year.

Planning the peak day: step by step

For step 3, it is worth setting up notifications instead of watching the map all the time – how that works with the big tracking services is shown in the guide Setting up alerts for aircraft, types and airlines. For step 4, the article Understanding the runway direction in use at an airport explains how to work out the active runway from the wind forecast. And when the peak day meets a special livery, the post Finding special liveries helps.

What to watch for on peak days

• Get there early. On public holidays with good weather, families and day trippers come along with the spotters. Front-row spots on decks and hills like the Munich visitors’ hill fill up fast.
• Check opening hours. Observation decks have their own hours, which can change with the season. Current information is on the website of the airport in question – at the Düsseldorf observation deck just like anywhere else.
• Allow for delays. When operations are dense, rotations slip easily. The jet you are waiting for may then arrive only in the evening – in different light.
• Don’t block access roads. On peak days the roads around the airport are strained anyway. Park only in designated areas and keep emergency routes clear. What is allowed at the fence and what isn’t is summarized in the article Is plane spotting allowed?
• Note registrations, not just airlines. Especially with leased jets, the livery is not always clear. The registration is the surest way to assign a sighting correctly later.

Experiencing peak days on vacation

Holiday traffic is often most impressive where it arrives. At island airports in the Mediterranean, traffic from all over Europe stacks up in high season, and at spots like the runway end in Skiathos you experience leisure airliners at spectacular proximity. On smaller islands in particular, the schedule is often strongly concentrated on certain days of the week – checking the local schedule is worthwhile before you plan a spotting day. You will find tips on travel planning with a camera in the post Plane spotting on vacation.

Conclusion

School holiday starts, public holidays and winter Saturdays are the days when air traffic shows its reserves: extra rotations, leased jets in foreign colors, charters from abroad and seasonal routes that run for only a few weeks. If you know the KMK holiday calendar, pick the right airports and check the schedule, wind and light beforehand, you turn a crowded day into an especially rewarding one. Allow a buffer for travel and delays, write down the registrations – and drop by again at the end of the holidays too.