EUROCONTROL hits five year record for daily aircraft movements

12-Aug-2015 For the first time in Europe in the last five years, our average daily traffic was over 31,000 flights/day. Compared with July 2014, there was a 2.1% increase in flights – in line with the baseline forecast.

Traffic avoiding Ukraine distorted flows, making more work for air traffic control centres in Budapest,Bratislava and Belgrade. Traffic to and from Tunisia was down by over a third, following the terrorist attack on 26 June.

Recurrent capacity problems at both the Istanbul airports accounted for 12.8% of the total Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) delays in July and heavy traffic loads combined with staffing issues made for significant ATFM delays in Greece and Cyprus. 
Seasonal weather added to these problems, resulting in an increase in ATFM delays of 37.1% in July 2015, compared with July 2014. En-route ATFM delays increased by 29.8% and airport ATFM delays increased by 51.4%.

Network Operations Report - July 2015

Traffic in July 2015 increased by 2.1% compared to July 2014 and was in line with the baseline forecast. Traffic avoiding Ukraine airspace continued to distort traditional traffic flows with increased traffic in Budapest, Bratislava and Belgrade ACCs. Following the terrorist attack in Tunisia on 26 June, traffic to/from the state was down 33% in July with flights shifting mostly to Spain.

Total ATFM delays increased by 37.1% in July 2015 compared to July 2014. En-route ATFM delays increased by 29.8% and airport ATFM delays increased by 51.4%.

Highlights include:

• Recurrent capacity problems at Istanbul/Sabiha Gökcen and Istanbul/Ataturk airports which accounted for 12.8% of the total ATFM delays in July.
• High traffic growth and capacity/staffing problems resulted in significant ATFM delays in Greece and Cyprus.
• En-route ATC capacity/staffing delays at Brest, Zagreb, Reims, Barcelona and Maastricht.
• Seasonal weather impacted operations at Maastricht, Karlsruhe, Vienna, Reims and Zagreb ACCs as well as Zurich,London/Heathrow, Amsterdam/Schiphol and Frankfurt/Main airports.
• Industrial actions in Spain generated some delays in Barcelona and Canarias ACCs.
• Industrial action in Bucharest ACC on 15 July generated delays; Belgrade ACC applied protective measures.

The average en-route delay per flight in July 2015 was 1.39 min/flt, which is above the monthly guideline* value of 0.97 min/flt. The average YTD en-route ATFM delay per flight in 2015 in the NM area is 0.69 min/flt, which is above the corresponding guideline value of 0.50 min/flt.

* NM’s calculation that provides the guideline en-route delay (min) requirements to achieve the annual target (0.5 min/flight).

The monthly Network Operations Report overview provides a high level view of the performance of the European ATM network in June 2015, whilst the analysis provides a detailed view.

Download previous network performance reports.

The latest edition of the Reporting Assumptions & Descriptions is now available via the monitoring network performance webpage.

The target audience of our performance reports are ATM professionals including air navigation service providers, airport operators and aircraft operators.

• Any questions? e-mail us.
• Do you want to contact us? e-mail us.

Do you want to keep up to date on the latest  Network Performance? Then subscribe to our monthly Network Operations Report newsletter to receive updates on the performance of the European ATM network.