The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published a study indicating that delays caused by air‑traffic control (ATC) in Europe have increased by more than 100 % over the past ten years, while the total number of flights grew by only about 7 %.
Air‑traffic‑flow‑management (ATFM) delays rose 114 % between 2015 and 2024. The figures exclude weather‑related disruptions and cancellations that resulted from ATC strikes.
The analysis points to insufficient capacity and chronic staffing shortages as the dominant factors, especially in France and Germany, which together are responsible for over half of the total delay minutes.
“Europe’s inability to resolve ATC bottlenecks is now evident in the soaring delay figures. The promised Single European Sky has not delivered the expected efficiency gains, and passengers are bearing the cost,” said Willie Walsh, IATA Director General.
Key findings from the report include:
- 7.2 million flights experienced delays from 2015 through October 2025; 6.4 million of them were delayed by 30 minutes or less, while 0.7 million exceeded that threshold.
- In 2024, total delay time reached 30.4 million minutes, up from 14.2 million minutes in 2015, with the summer months (July‑August) accounting for 38 % of the delay minutes.
- Staffing and capacity constraints were behind 87 % of ATC‑related delays. Delays linked to staffing (excluding strikes) surged by 201.7 % since 2015.
- Industrial action contributed 8.8 % of all ATC‑related delay minutes, amounting to 9.8 million minutes over the decade.
The numbers are based on data available up to October 2025; a full‑year 2025 update will be released when the complete dataset becomes available.
For further details, please contact IATA Corporate Communications at +41 22 770 2967 or via email at [email protected].
Source: www.iata.org
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