National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK's leading air traffic management provider, handled a record 2.3 million flights through British airspace in 2005, a rise of 5.7 per cent over the previous year and the highest annual growth since 1999.
An upsurge of flights by low cost carriers to Eastern Europe contributed to the record-breaking year with flights to the region growing by 36.5 per cent over the 12 months. Traffic to the Middle East, Asia and Africa also showed significant growth, rising by 12.9 per cent.
However, the strong growth in domestic traffic seen all year has slowed considerably since the start of the winter schedules, from a peak rise in May of 9.5 per cent to 0.4 per cent in December. Transatlantic overflights remained below the level in 2000, before the downturn in air travel following the US terrorist attacks of 9/11 in 2001.
All four of NATS' en-route centres, London Area Control (LACC) at Swanwick, Hampshire, London Terminal Control at West Drayton, Scottish Area and Oceanic Control at Prestwick, and Manchester Area Control exceeded previous annual records.
Airports where NATS provides the air traffic service also showed year on year growth, with a 4.5 per cent rise for the year as a whole. NATS' newest UK airport, Bristol, showed a 14 per cent increase in en route movements in December compared with last year whilst out of NATS' 15 UK airports, London City achieved the largest annual growth at 17.4 per cent.
In December, NATS handled 172,491 flights, an increase of 4.5 per cent on the same period last year.
For the calendar year, NATS' attributable average delay per flight figure was 0.35 minutes (20.8 seconds) and 98 per cent of flights received no NATS attributable delay. This compares with figures for 2004 of 0.42 minutes (25.1 seconds) and 97.5 per cent.
| Dec 2005 | Dec 2004 | % gr | 2005 to Date | 2004 to Date | %gr | |
| UK FLIGHTS | 172,491 | 165,045 | 4.5% | 2,305,384 | 2,180,875 | 5.7% |
| CENTRES | ||||||
| London Area Control Centre (Swanwick) | 139,367 | 132,859 | 4.9% | 1,858,003 | 1,771,875 | 4.9% |
| London Terminal Control Centre | 100,878 | 97,763 | 3.2% | 1,316,478 | 1,267,052 | 3.9% |
| Manchester Area Control Centre | 42,555 | 44,334 | -4.0% | 602,186 | 586,289 | 2.7% |
| Scottish Area Control Centre | 46,663 | 44,899 | 3.9% | 604,508 | 586,441 | 3.1% |
| Oceanic Area Control Centre (Shanwick) | 28,229 | 26,908 | 4.9% | 375,132 | 357,181 | 5.0% |
| MARKET | ||||||
| Transatlantic Arrivals/Departures | 10,056 | 10,089 | -0.3% | 134,542 | 130,047 | 3.5% |
| Transatlantic Overflights | 13,447 | 12,478 | 7.8% | 173,265 | 165,809 | 4.5% |
| Other Arrivals/Departures | 102,902 | 97,819 | 5.2% | 1,402,091 | 1,324,638 | 5.8% |
| Other Overflights | 7,259 | 5,998 | 21.0% | 93,105 | 82,355 | 13.1% |
| Domestic | 38,514 | 38,378 | 0.4% | 497,362 | 473,115 | 5.1% |
5 January 2006
