DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Latest Eurocontrol figures show the continent's airports are fast emerging as the "constraining factor" to European air traffic growth, replacing lack of air traffic management (ATM) capacity as the main cause of infrastructure-related delays.
European air traffic movements in January 2003 rose by 5.9% compared with the same month a year ago, but the average en route ATM delay was reduced by 29%, reports Eurocontrol. Delays on departure caused by air traffic flow management restrictions increased by 6.3%, but hold-ups resulting from airport constraints increased by more than 40%. Eurocontrol says this indicates that "the next constraining factor in the medium to long term will be airports".
This appears to be the first evidence - delayed by a year or so by the economic downturn – of a problem that the industry had warned was inevitable unless European countries allow the construction of new airports, or at least new runways.
Eurocontrol says it is "working very closely with airlines, airports and air navigation service providers...with the aim of synchronising airspace and airport operations," to try and make the most efficient use of the existing infrastructure.
Source: Flight International
