European air traffic saw a slight year-on-year growth in 2010, with the volcanic ash cloud in April being a main limiting factor.
However, as the number of flights grew across the continent's skies there were more delays.
Eurocontrol registered a 0.8% increase in the number of flights between 2009 and 2010 - the total number reached 9.49 million flights. This is expected to grow by "at least" 3.6% in 2011.
"This will come from the bounce-back from the ash cloud, but also as airlines continue to search for the right level of capacity to meet the post-economic crisis demand," says Eurocontrol head of forecasting David Marsh.
Greater traffic in the air and on the ground also led to longer waiting times. The average delay per flight increased from to 2.7min from 1.6min, an increase of almost 70%.
The number of cancellations also grew "significantly". An estimated 175,000 scheduled flights were cancelled in 2010. Even if the effects of the ash cloud were removed, this was 2.5 times as many cancellations as in 2009. The main reasons were weather disruptions, strikes and capacity shortages.
The largest growth factor was a 6.9% traffic increase among budget airlines, although this uplift "markedly" slowed towards the end of the year. Business aviation was the second biggest growth contributor, registering a 5.5% increase in the number of flights.
While Turkey, Italy, Ukraine and Germany saw increases in air traffic, the number of flights fell in Ireland, the UK and Greece.
"We will continue to see strong divergence between individual states," says Marsh.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
