But that is just one side of the story. Climate change is also having an impact on the aviation sector. Disruptive weather has increasingly caused delays over the last few years. The Network Manager and its European aviation stakeholder partners have progressively introduced measures to counter this problem, such as integrating cross-border weather forecasts into network operations. But at the same time, Europe has been experiencing unprecedented weather events such as devastating floods in Belgium and Germany, wildfires and extreme temperatures across the continent.
In 2022 temperatures were so hot in summer that some runways melted. Storms caused delayed, diverted and cancelled flights and damaged communications equipment. Extreme precipitation caused a control tower to flood, temporarily closing an airport. At the end of 2022, we saw heavy winter weather impacting airport operations, causing many more flights to be delayed and cancelled.