National Air Traffic Services handled 193,715 flights in October, the last month of the summer flight schedules. This is a record for the month and almost five per cent up on October 2003.
Despite record numbers, the average flight delay attributable to NATS fell to 0.29 minutes in October 04, compared to 0.54 minutes in October 03. 98.1% of flights were not delayed at all by NATS, compared to 96.3% last year.
The UK’s air traffic control centres all broke previous records for the month of October: London Area Control Centre, Swanwick handled 158,471 flights (up 3.2%), London Terminal Control Centre, West Drayton handled 111,831 flights (up 3.2%), Manchester Area Control Centre handled 52,598 flights (up 5.6%), Scottish Area Control Centre, Prestwick handled 51,911 flights (up 4.9%), and Oceanic Area Control Centre (also at Prestwick) handled 31,358 flights up 5.3%.
Low-cost carriers continue to be the principal growth engine in UK-based flights, showing strong year-on-year gains, and this sector has developed in 2004 with the recent start-ups of ThomsonFly from Coventry and EUjet from Manston. Overflights of UK airspace again showed strong growth from the low-cost sector on short haul routes (up 10.4%), but transatlantic overflights rose by only 1.6% over October last year, due to reduced numbers of overflights to and from Iceland, and between North America, Scandinavia and Switzerland.
| Oct 2004 | Oct 2003 | % | 2004 to Date | 2003 to Date | % | ||
| UK FLIGHTS | 193,715 | 185,600 | 4.4% | 1,846,058 | 1,759,702 | 4.9% | |
| CENTRES | |||||||
| London Area Control Centre (Swanwick) | 158,471 | 153,501 | 3.2% | 1,504,960 | 1,458,195 | 3.2% | |
| London Terminal Control Centre | 111,831 | 108,313 | 3.2% | 1,069,532 | 1,035,849 | 3.3% | |
| Manchester Area Control Centre | 52,598 | 49,824 | 5.6% | 495,265 | 464,925 | 6.5% | |
| Scottish Area Control Centre | 51,911 | 49,499 | 4.9% | 494,835 | 454,672 | 8.8% | |
| Oceanic Area Control Centre (Shanwick) | 31,358 | 29,786 | 5.3% | 303,579 | 287,591 | 5.6% | |
| MARKET | |||||||
| Transatlantic Arrivals/Departures | 11,616 | 10,959 | 6.0% | 110,015 | 102,002 | 7.9% | |
| Transatlantic Overflights | 13,937 | 13,711 | 1.6% | 141,219 | 136,136 | 3.7% | |
| Other Arrivals/Departures | 119,200 | 113,785 | 4.8% | 1,126,966 | 1,070,099 | 5.3% | |
| Other Overflights | 7,447 | 6,743 | 10.4% | 70,414 | 65,335 | 7.8% | |
| Domestic | 41,078 | 39,862 | 3.1% | 393,715 | 380,975 | 3.3% |
