Europe’s air traffic management organisation Eurocontrol says that air traffic grew to a record 9.2 million flights in 2005, but airline bodies are nervous as delay levels creep up.
While the number of flights in 2005 grew at an annual rate of 4.5%, with 700 million passengers carried, Croatia, Slovakia and Poland saw growth rates of 18%, 17% and 16%, respectively.
Eurocontrol says that average delays across all European flights were 1.9 minutes, and adds that “first indications are that delays will be maintained at similarly low levels in 2006”. The number of flights is expected to increase by 3% this year. “While higher ticket prices may depress demand, growth will be driven by the low-cost carriers, expansion in the Turkish market and the development of the European economy,” the agency says.
Eurocontrol claims that air traffic management delays are down by 75% since 1999, despite traffic growing by 15%. “The fact that Europe has an ever-improving air traffic management system is borne out by the achievements over the past six years,” says Victor Aguado, Eurocontrol director general.
However, the trade body for leisure carriers, IACA, warns that the delay situation is actually getting worse. “The amount of delays is growing. We clearly see an increase,” warns Stef Slavujevic, IACA’s director of operations. “We are heading back to 1999 levels – we are clearly on the way down,” he says. IACA airlines saw delays caused by air traffic flow management increase from an average of 2.05 minutes in 2004 to 2.58 minutes in 2005.
In the past, Eurocontrol has clashed fiercely with the Association of European Airlines (AEA), the trade body for European mainline carriers, over the issue of delays. However, the AEA says that while the issue is not dead, it is no longer such a high priority. “It is something that used to occupy us greatly a few years ago, but the situation is not as bad now, although it is a constant concern,” it says. AEA measures delays in a different way to Eurocontrol, and also only includes flights by its member airlines, which tend to operate in Europe’s busiest airports.
AEA figures for the third quarter last year, which includes the busy summer peak, show that 22.1% of flights had delays of more than 15 minutes, slightly up from the same period in 2004.
The AEA warns, however: “Delays attributable to commercial, technical and operational reasons were virtually unchanged at around 8% of the total. The majority of delays – and the bulk of the increase – were imposed due to infrastructure constraints.”
Turkey’s Istanbul airport was the worst delay offender, with 38.1% of flights delayed by more than 15 minutes for the period. Next on the list was Athens, followed by London Gatwick, Rome Fiumicino and London Heathrow.
ACI Europe says that as demand increases, delays and congestion will become widespread unless the industry works in partnership to meet environmental and financial challenges. ■
COLIN BAKER / LONDON
Source: Airline Business
