Search for the sun keeps passengers flying

A surge in flights to Europe’s autumn sunspots contributed to a year-on-year increase in UK flights in November.

A 10 per cent increase in flights to the Canary Islands, nine per cent to Spain and six per cent to Italy, contributed to an overall increase of 1.4 per cent on the same month a year ago. In total NATS, the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, safely handled 174,148 flights in November. Non-transatlantic arrivals and departures showed most growth, with 4.4 per cent more flights than in November 2023.

According to Eurocontrol, NATS handled more than 23.4 per cent of Europe’s traffic in November and was accountable for just 0.6 per cent of delay. 99.7 per cent of flights received no NATS-attributable delay; the average delay per delayed flight was 13.9 minutes.

Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said: “While we saw the usual drop in flights from October into November, when the winter schedules kick in, it is worthy of note that traffic is still up on last year by a noticeable amount. The increase in flights to the Canaries and Spain, in particular, suggests people are escaping the British weather and short days in search of autumn sunshine..”