UK’s two millionth flight arrives two weeks earlier than 2023

The UK’s two millionth flight of 2024 arrived this year on 15 October, nearly two weeks earlier than last year and less than two weeks later than it did in 2019, the busiest year on record.

This points to UK air traffic levels being very close to pre-pandemic levels, with every likelihood that next year will set new records.

NATS, the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, safely handled 222,567 flights over the month of October, an increase of 0.8 per cent on October 2023.

The top market segment growth was in non-transatlantic arrivals and departures, with 3.2 per cent more flights than in October 2023. The busiest routes were to Spain, Italy and Turkey.

NATS handled more than 24 per cent of Europe’s traffic in October, according to Eurocontrol, and was accountable for just 1.1 per cent of delay. 99 per cent of flights received no NATS-attributable delay; the average delay per delayed flight was 12 minutes.

Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said: “The two millionth flight is a bellwether of the industry’s bounce back from the pandemic.  In 2022 it came in December, last year it was the end of October and this year it’s just 12 days later than in 2019.  All the signs are that next year will be busier still. “The most popular routes last month were those European destinations that can pretty much guarantee some late summer sun.  The end of October brought the end of the airlines’ summer schedules so we expect traffic to fall away slightly until the Christmas holidays.”