The European Airlines Association (AEA) has declared 1998 a "black year" for delays, with the figures for June reaching similar levels to those for the same month in 1989, the worst on record.
Brussels, Belgium-based Eurocontrol says it has "no dispute" with the AEA statistics, which show that 29.1% of flights in June were delayed by more than 15min. "The system is coming close to saturation," says the agency. "When this happens, delays begin to rise exponentially." Eurocontrol notes, however, that delays are now spread more or less evenly among airlines, whereas in 1989 some suffered more severely than others.
The organisation attributes this to the success of the central flow management unit, which regulates the flow of aircraft entering European airspace according to available capacity on a particular day.
Air traffic has increased by around 45% since 1989. Eurocontrol points out that the figures show that the capacity of European airspace and airports to handle the growth was keeping pace until this year. The organisation admits that there are "physical limits" on air traffic control technology, despite recent advances, and blames a lack of willingness to hire more air traffic controllers.
The AEA accuses national air traffic control service providers of "complacency" and failure to replace the "uncoordinated patchwork of national systems". The association adds that while Eurocontrol's harmonisation initiatives have helped, "-the figures demonstrate that they still have not delivered the goods".
Source: Flight International
