A4E, Europe’s largest airline trade association, today called on EU Transport Commissioner Hoekstra to take urgent action to address the crisis of Europe’s Air traffic control (ATC) capacity shortages. So far this summer, Europe’s airlines have been forced to delay or cancel thousands of flights, impacting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The most recent data from Eurocontrol for the week of 8-14 July, show that total Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) delays grew by 68 percent year-on-year for A4E airlines, with ATC capacity and ATC staffing issues causing 53 percent of these delays. The total amount of delays for the week was just under 700,000 minutes affecting over 34,000 flights which represents an average delay of 20 mins per flight.
A4E is calling for a number of actions to help alleviate delays caused by ATC capacity issues:
· Despite the best efforts of airlines, coordination with Eurocontrol and ATC service providers (ANSPs) needs to be more effective to react to major weather or other disrup
tive events.
· There needs to be a better match between capacity and demand often resulting from controllers being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
· There needs to be better adaptability amongst the ATC workforce through improved rostering and through increased hiring in some areas.
· Longer term, European ATC providers need to ensure they are operating with the latest technology and operational concepts.
These improvements can go some way to addressing ATC capacity issues so that airlines can deliver the timely and efficient service their passengers expect and deserve.
Source: Emirates News Agency
