Punctuality stays strong in the eye of the storm

NATS, the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, safely handled 167,173 flights last month, an increase of 1.6 per cent on January 2024. Non-transatlantic arrivals and departures showed most growth, with 2.9 per cent more flights than a year ago. Spain, France and Germany remained the busiest routes with France showing a significant ten per cent year-on-year increase.

According to Eurocontrol, NATS handled 23.3 per cent of Europe’s traffic in January and was accountable for just 0.2 per cent of Europe’s delay. Some 99.9 per cent of flights received no NATS-attributable delay; the average NATS delay per delayed flight was 9.3 minutes.

Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said: “It is encouraging to see the new year get off to such a strong start, with new routes from Vueling, easyjet and Ryanair helping the growth in France. I am delighted with NATS’ punctuality performance for the month, which we achieved despite some very challenging weather conditions, including Storm Eowyn. The industry worked very closely to plan ahead in order to minimise disruption for travellers but there is no doubt it caused a lot of difficulties for airlines and airports.”