All-causes delay and cancellations to Air Transport in Europe for Q4 2016

This report is part of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager’s reporting on network performance in 2016. This kind of publication puts ATFM delay into the context of delays from all causes. They complement more detailed reporting of ATFM delay reporting.

Operational data received directly from airlines by CODA describing delays from all-causes for 2016 illustrated a story of poorer on-time performance in 2016, following a year where ATFM en-route delay from ATC industrial actions as well as ATM system implementations drove higher delays for airlines, with the effect of increasing reactionary delay.

The average departure delay per flight ranged from a low of 8 minutes per flight in February to a peak of 16 minutes per flight in July. This translated to an annual average all-cause departure delay of 11.3 minutes per flight, an increase of 0.9 minutes per flight, alongside an increase in daily flights of 2.8% in ECAC. The network experienced its busiest ever day on Friday 9 September 2016.

Reactionary (knock-on) delay increased contributing 5.1 minutes to the 11.3 minute average delay per flight, a 45% share of delay minutes meaning for every 1 minute of primary delay there were 50 seconds of reactionary delay generated. The range of reactionary delay during the year was wider than airline delay, with a range of 4 minutes being observed from the lows in February of 3.5 minutes per flight and the high in June of 7.5 minutes per flight, a month which also saw a peak in en-route ATFM delay.

Delays due to airline operations remained the main cause of primary delay, contributing 3.1 minutes to the average delay per flight. Compared to reactionary delay which doubled during the summer months airline delays remain relatively stable with the 2016 monthly average ranging between 2.5 to 3.5 minutes per flight.

Read the full report for more information.

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All-Causes Delay and Cancellations to Air Transport in Europe - Q4 2016