On-time air travel performance in Europe last year was one of the worst for many years in 2023.
There was a notable increase in delays and costs impacting airlines with millions of passengers disrupted.
According to the recently released Performance Review Report (PRR) from Eurocontrol, over a quarter of flights did not arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time.
En-route Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) delays in 2023 were the second highest over the past 20 years and beat the figure for 2019 even though the latter year had a higher level of air traffic.
Total ATFM delays in 2023 reached 18.1 million minutes which is the equivalent of 301,000 hours.
The report suggests inadequate levels of recruitment of controllers will only add to the pressure on Europe’s airspace.
Airlines for Europe is calling for a rethink of how Europe’s airspace is managed in order to meet the targets for performance.
Ourania Georgoutsakou, MD of A4E said: “Airspace is a critical infrastructure for Europe and the latest performance review shows that it is creaking at the seams.”
Over one in four flights delayed is simply unacceptable for airlines and their passengers.”
