ATC performance stays on track as summer comes to an end
UK air traffic in August increased by 2.4 per cent on the same month last year as NATS, the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, safely handled 246,442 flights. The total averaged almost 8,000 flights per day, slightly less than in July.
According to Eurocontrol, NATS handled 23.4 per cent of Europe’s traffic in August and was accountable for only 1.7 per cent of Europe’s overall delay. 97.86 per cent of flights received no NATS-attributable delay; of the 2.14% of flights which experienced a NATS delay – a total of 5,263 – the average delay was 12.92 minutes.
The market segment with most growth was non-transatlantic overflights, which increased by 7.5 per cent on last year, with particular growth in flights using UK airspace between Norway and the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, and Ireland and Poland. The UK markets seeing most growth were Italy, Spain and Ireland. Domestic UK flights, however, dropped by 7.3 per cent.
Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said:
“Over July and August, the two busiest months of the year, our controllers have safely handled nearly half a million flights and contributed less than 2% to overall European delay. That’s a fantastic record in the face of constantly increasing air traffic in very congested airspace.”
This year’s busiest day – and the busiest day since the pandemic – was Friday 18 July when NATS safely handled 8,340 flights. See what the day looked like below!