Two-figure traffic growth for the first half of the year 2024

Switzerland’s air navigation service provider Skyguide managed and monitored 628 205 flights under instrument flight rules (IFR) in the first half of 2024. This represents a year-on-year increase of 12.8 per cent, and a decline of 0.5 per cent with respect to the first half of 2019. Traffic in the airspace above Switzerland and in the delegated areas managed by Skyguide increased at a two-figure rate (10 per cent-14 per cent) every month since the start of the year, reaching 99.5 per cent of 2019 traffic levels (month-on-month) by the end of the first semester.

Some 94.6 per cent of all flights handled by Skyguide were punctual, which is 2.6 points below the punctuality of the first half of 2019. The high growth these past six months can be attributed to a 10 per cent increase in passenger demand and airline capacity on the one hand, and the shift of the traffic back to its usual routes (the French air traffic control strike from January to June 2023 having caused many flights to circumnavigate Switzerland).