Airport News

29th May 2014

Airport News
NATS says it handled 180,036 flights in April at the UK airports it manages air traffic management at, a rise of 2.2% compared to the same month last year – continuing a 13 month trend of air traffic increases.

Delays attributable to NATS totalled 344 minutes, representing the lowest April total since records began in 1996.

Nine out of the 15 airports where NATS operates air traffic control saw a rise in commercial traffic when compared to April last year, due to the Easter holidays falling later than in previous years.

Birmingham Airport saw a rise of 9.9% and both London Gatwick and London Stansted experienced a rise of 7.8%.

Leading market growth last month was other overflights (non-transatlantic) with a 5.6% rise and other arrivals/departure, which rose by 4% in comparison to the same time last year, but the domestic market segment saw a decline of 5.3%.

Martin Rolfe, managing director operations, NATS, explains: “As the busy summer travel period approaches, April shows encouraging signs for the months ahead.

“We are handling more commercial traffic at the majority of UK airports where we operate and in addition to this we are keeping delay times to a minimum. “This is good news for our airport and airline customers as well as passengers.”