In the summer of 2024, air traffic in Europe increased by five percent compared to the previous year, but this resulted in significant delays for passengers. Over a third of all flights had an arrival delay of 15 minutes or more. Eurocontrol, the European organization for aviation safety, attributes the delays to staff shortages in air traffic control services, unexpected traffic growth in certain regions, adverse weather conditions and a high number of unannounced flights.
According to Eurocontrol, this summer saw the worst air traffic performance since 1999. The organisation has presented a policy paper recommending structural reforms to keep pace with rising traffic volumes and address the effects of climate change. The total cost of the delays was estimated at around 1,8 billion euros, with capacity constraints and staffing problems being the main causes.
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