European aviation continues to experience a recovery period, as reported by Eurocontrol’s latest overview covering the 9th to the 15th of May. The network supervised by Eurocontrol, an international organization providing safe air traffic management across Europe, recorded 29,230 average daily flights (+7% vs 2022), increasing (+1%) vs the previous week and standing at 93% of 2019 levels.
The top 10 aircraft operators recorded a slight increase (+0.8%) on the previous week. For the first half of May, the number of flights in the network was 92% of the 2019 levels, spot on the base scenario of the flight forecast (released in December 2022). Operations are still affected by (local) industrial action on specific days in France, the continuation of a series of strikes which started earlier this year (reform of pension law).
Arrival and Departure punctuality continue to improve, closing 2 and 4 percentage points (respectively) below 2019. Eurocontrol billed 732M€ of en-route charges for April flights; 19% above the amount billed for the April 2022 flights. On a year-to-date basis, Eurocontrol billed 2,547M€ in 2023, +29% compared to 2022, owing to service units (flights) increases. The Jet fuel price closed at 2.16 USD/gallon on 12 May, decreasing (-4%) on last edition. Current prices have decreased by 21% compared to the ones at the beginning of the year.
1. Arrival and departure punctuality
Network punctuality decreased when compared to the equivalent week in 2019, with arrival at 73.5% and departure at 67.8%, decreasing by 1.9 and 3.6 percentage points respectively. In a familiar pattern to recent weeks, French industrial action still influenced performance, with actions continuing in Paris ACC on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Elsewhere in the network ATC equipment issues impacted Greece both en-route and at Athens Airport. Looking at airports; ATC staffing shortages continue at Copenhagen airport. Work in progress at Antalya airport continued causing delays as aerodrome capacity was reduced. Palma, Amsterdam Schiphol, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Frankfurt Main all experienced weather delays, mainly low visibility and thunderstorm related.
2. Top 10 countries
The top 10 States recorded higher number of flights (+6.5%) than in the previous week. Compared to the previous overview: Germany and Spain swapped places. Greece entered the top 10, ranking eighth, while Switzerland (previously 10th) exited. Greece recorded a growth rate of 7%, owing to increases from light aircraft operators, Condor, Aegean, TUI and Eurowings.
Germany posted a 4% increase due to light aircraft operators, Condor, Eurowings and Lufthansa. Four States within the top 10, have now recorded growth above 2019 (Türkiye, Portugal, Greece and Spain). France and Italy are relatively close to the pre-Covid levels. The four remaining States are still between 17% and 9% below 2019 levels.
