EUROCONTROL hits five year record for daily aircraft movements

EUROCONTROL reported (21-Aug-2015) the following network operations highlights for Jul-2015:

• European daily aircraft movements averaged 31,000, up 2.1% year-on-year;
• Total ATFM delays increased by 37.1%;
• En-route ATFM delays increased by 29.8% and airport ATFM delays increased by 51.4%;
• • Recurrent capacity problems at both the Istanbul airports accounted for 12.8% of the total;
  • 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%, impacting 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;
• Average en-route delay per flight in Jul-2015 was 1.39 min/flt, above the monthly guideline value of 0.97 min/flt. Average year to date 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. [more - original PR]