Christmas getaway got away in good time

NATS, the UK’s major provider of air traffic services, safely handled 181,015 flights in December, an increase of 1.5 per cent on December 2023. Non-transatlantic arrivals and departures showed most growth, with 4.1 per cent more flights than a year ago. Spain, France and Germany were the busiest routes.

According to Eurocontrol, NATS handled more than 24 per cent of Europe’s traffic in December and was accountable for just 0.4 per cent of delay. 99.8 per cent of flights received no NATS-attributable delay; the average delay per delayed flight was 11.3 minutes.

Kathryn Leahy, Chief Operations Officer, said: “The draw of Europe’s Christmas markets may have been behind last month’s growth routes, but December is always busy and we do our very best to make sure that everyone’s travel goes according to plan. In the face of some very challenging weather conditions, our team pulled out all the stops and I am very pleased that we were able to keep the average delay so low. It was a good performance.”