Delay almost halved in UK air traffic for May
UK air traffic delay in May has dropped by almost half compared to the same month last year.
There was 1,502 minutes of NATS-attributable en route delay – a 47.6% drop from May 2014’s figures.
While the average en route delay per flight remained historically low at 0.42 secs – which was down almost half from the 0.81 secs in May 2014 – 99.95% of flights last month had no en route delay.
NATS handled 214,176 flights in May 2015, which was a steady increase in traffic as it was up 0.3% compared to May last year.
Transatlantic arrivals/departures lead the UK market for growth at 7.7%, followed by non-Transatlantic overflights up 2.5% and Domestic flights up 1.3%. Nine out of 14 NATS’ UK airports recorded growth in instrument flight rules (IFR) traffic levels compared to May 2014. Growth was led by London City (9.7%), followed by Glasgow (6.2%) and Stansted (5.1%).
Juliet Kennedy, Operations Director at Swanwick, NATS, said: “While the increase in traffic may appear small, each month we are seeing a steady growth, which is encouraging for the aviation industry.”
“This was a particularly busy month for us, managing the spikes in traffic for those going to major European events (Monaco Grand Prix and Cannes Film Festival), as well as those travelling for the Bank Holiday weekends and the school half term holidays in England and Wales. So I am pleased we had a huge reduction in en route delay in May during this busy period.”