September air traffic figures record two millionth flight of the year

In September, NATS handled 237,906 flights in UK airspace, an increase of 0.4% compared to September 2018.

There was growth in several areas of the operation compared to the same month last year – non-transatlantic international overflying traffic increased by 12.1%; and traffic grew at both of NATS’ air traffic control (ATC) centres at Swanwick (0.4%) and Prestwick (1.4%). There was also growth at six of the 14 airports where NATS provides the ATC service, including two of the ’big five’ London Airports – London City and Luton.

NATS handled almost 24% of all the traffic in Europe in September with 98% punctuality across the 237,906 flights. Year to date, the average air traffic control delay per flight is 9.7 seconds.

Juliet Kennedy, NATS Operations Director, said: “Traffic growth remains steady, with 0.4% growth in September and just over 1% growth so far this year. We handled our two millionth flight of the year on 25 September, three days earlier than in 2018 (28 September); a decade ago, this number of flights was not reached until October and even November, showing the growth that has happened in the industry since then.”