EUROCONTROL - News

EUROCONTROL’s Central Office for Delay Analysis (CODA) has released its digest of delays in June. It is based on data provided directly by airlines and on EUROCONTROL data covering IFR flights across Europe.

Overall, delays have increased as compared to June 2009, although the total is comparable to June 2008. 44.7% of flights were delayed by more than five minutes. These delayed flights were delayed for an average of 29.2 minutes. Traffic grew by 3%.

A striking result of the analysis is the increase in ATFCM (Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management) delays. These constituted 41.7% of primary delays in June – a very significant rise from 28.6% in 2009 and the highest figure recorded in recent years.

Most of this increase came from a rise in en-route delays, although both airport and weather delays also rose (fog and thunderstorms).

The focus of delays has moved west, with France and Spain showing the greatest increases. This was in part due to industrial action in France on June 15th and 24th. Other causes included ATC capacity and staffing.