Image courtesy NATS
 
Non-transatlantic arrivals and departures had most growth, with 3.8% more flights compared to September 2023. The busiest routes were to Spain, France and Italy.
 
NATS handled nearly 24% of European traffic in September, according to Eurocontrol and was accountable for just 1.7% of delay, whilst 98% of flights received no NATS-attributable delay (the average delay per delayed flight was 15 minutes).

 
Over the six months April to September, NATS handled 1,374,498 flights, an increase of 4.1% on last year. July was the busiest month of the year so far and included the busiest day since 2019 (8,238 flights on Monday 15th July).
 
NATS has consistently managed almost 24% of European traffic this summer, accounting for 1.2% of the total delay, with the average delay per delayed flight less than 15 minutes.
 
For comparison, over the same six-month period in 2019, the busiest year on record, NATS handled 1,429,909 flights.  This also equated to 24% of European traffic. NATS accounted for 2.1% of delay, 99% of flights received no NATS attributable delay and the average delay per delayed flight was 26 minutes.
 
Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said: “The airlines’ summer schedules run from April to October, so we are close to the end of a busy summer season for the industry. There have been well-reported challenges across the entire European network, including ongoing airspace capacity constraints and some very disruptive weather. We have seen traffic peak to near pre-pandemic levels – and exceed those levels in some areas – and our controllers have been at their professional best in providing a safe and efficient service.  
 
“We have held industry-wide calls over the summer to support airline and airport customers during times of significant disruption (the Crowdstrike issue for example), as well as our daily ‘lookahead’ operational calls to share information we have for the following day, to help airline and airport operators in planning their schedules.”