The latest performance review from Eurocontrol reveals that a quarter of flights in Europe were delayed in 2023.
“After the bad performance in 2022, punctuality levels in Europe decreased further in 2023, reaching the worst level on record over the past 20 years,” said Peter Whysall, Chairman of the Performance Review Commission at Eurocontrol.
Over a quarter of flights did not arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, according to the report. Air Traffic Flow Management delays were the second highest in the last 20 years, surpassing 2019 levels.
Eurocontrol attributed the delays to staff shortages that have continued to plague airlines and airports since COVID. In addition, for the first time, adverse weather conditions have been the main cause of en-route delays.
Horizontal en-route flight inefficiency continued to increase in 2023, up 0,3 percentage points compared with 2019. Eurocontrol attributes this to re-routing due to the ongoing effects of the war in Ukraine.