Following the recommendation of EUROCONTROL, we’re going to compare the summer 2024 with summer 2023. Arguably, this is a more consistent comparison reflecting the actual airspace situation, including the consequences of the War in Ukraine.

First things first: Statistics

In numbers A4E members saw the following during the months of June-September 2024Figures derived from EUROCONTROL FATHOM interactive reporting.:

Figures derived from EUROCONTROL FATHOM interactive reporting :

• 6.0% traffic increase to 1.87M flights
• 8.5% increase in route charges to €1.99B
• 43.9% total delay increase to 11M minutes in four months (8.9M of which are en-route delays. This represents a 50.7% increase y-o-y; weather delay increased 50.5%, ATC capacity delay increased 74.2%, ATC staffing increased 8.6%)
• In other words 18 minutes and 20 seconds average ATFM delay per delayed flight

What do these increase mean in real terms?

A4E members paid this summer €1.99B in ATC charges, plus the costs for en-route delay of €890M (using the EUROCONTROL standard of about €100 per delay minute) – a total of €2.88B.

Airline commitments – how did we do?

Airlines have committed themselves to increasing their efforts to support ANSPs and the Network Manager in their day-to-day operations. These commitments are linked to the EUROCONTROL initiative of “All together now 2024” and comprise of fly as filedAircrafts follow the flight plan as it was cleared by ATC – no changes neither by ATCO nor by pilots., as well as to increase the use of Controller-Pilot Datalink Communication (CPDLC).This form communication replaces voice communications – a bit like text messages on the phone. EUROCONTROL reports a reduction in flights without a matching flight plan found in the Network Manager database as well as an improvement in CPDLC usage. Despite this, in the months with comparable traffic levels (June, August, September) delays did not decrease.

What does it all mean?

The statistics and the cost implications do not make for great reading- these are the facts (and costs) airlines have to cope with. Airlines do recognise the complications created by the War in Ukraine, reducing the available airspace and working some airspace areas well above 100% of their previous capacity. This all means we’re continuing to dive into things without properly planning beforehand.

Digging in the archives, half a decade ago we had the A4E’s Christmas wish list in 2019:

The 2019 delays reveal that the structural issues related to capacity, staffing and airspace design will remain problematic in 2020 — and therefore need to be urgently addressed (top of the list!). This requires a swift implementation of the European Commission’s Airspace Architecture Study recommendations, which A4E will support wherever it can.

It seems nothing much has changed – COVID 19 has merely hit a “Pause button”. Summer 2024 was worse than 2023 which was worse than 2022 …

We have heard and relied on the statement “next summer will be better” too many times. For Summer 2025 it is “all hands on deck” to ensure lessons are learned and improvements are made. This includes everybody within the aviation community as well as the European Commission  and member states.

We call for everybody involved in aviation to work on two streams:

• Improve Summer 2025 by extending pre-tactical planning to be a 24/7 operation and at the same time ensure better coordination processes to better prepare for bad weather or other disruptions.
• Implement the recommendations of the 2019 SESAR JU “Airspace Architecture Study” and push for a the European commission and member states to enable ANSPs (and ATCOs) to work seamlessly and flexibly across borders (Flight Information Regions and national)

All the effort necessary must be spent to ensure a less-congested summer traffic season in 2025, with fewer delays and re-routings to the benefit of our passengers, and our planet.

Finally a note on SES 2+

SES 2+ (Single European Sky) will not make a meaningful impact towards supporting the two streams outlined above. This is recognised by the mission letter to the new Commissioner for Transport and Tourism – asking him to open a dialogue to address the “inefficiencies in air traffic management within the Single European Sky”. This notion is supported by the Draghi Report stating that the use of airspace is not optimised. Despite air services benefiting the most from an integrated Single Market relative to other transport sectors, the lack of rationalised cross-border air traffic management cost an estimated EUR 6 billion and led to 11.6 million tonnes of excess CO2 in 2019 alone.