April kicks off a busy summer season

NATS, the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, safely handled 210,085 flights last month, a 4.2 per cent increase on April 2024.

Non-transatlantic arrivals and departures grew by 4.5 per cent, with flights to and from the Canaries increasing significantly – by 8 per cent year on year. Other European markets that have shown growth include mainland Spain, Poland, Italy, France and Portugal. Transatlantic arrivals and departures grew slightly – by 0.6 per cent.

According to Eurocontrol, NATS handled 23.8 per cent of Europe’s traffic in April and was accountable for just 1.1 per cent of Europe’s delay. 99.2 per cent of flights received no NATS-attributable delay; the average NATS delay per delayed flight was 9.6 minutes.

Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said:

“We are now well into the summer schedule and have seen many busy days in our operational centres and at the airports, managing up to 8,000 flights a day in UK airspace.

“We are working hard behind the scenes to provide a safe, efficient and resilient service so people can get away on time, and we will continue to collaborate across borders to help minimise the impact of any disruption in the wider European network.”