The average delay per flight in Q3 2023 decreased to 22.0 minutes per flight, compared to Q3 2022 where the average delay per flight was 22.8 minutes per flight alongside an increase in the number of flights of 7% when compared to Q3 2022.
Arrival punctuality improved in comparison to Q3 2022, with 65.8% of flights arriving within 15 minutes or earlier of their scheduled arrival time (STA), compared to 64.5% in Q3 2022.
Despite falling slightly reactionary (knock-on) delay contributed the most to the average delay per flight with an almost identical share of 48.2% of delay minutes (up from 47.1% share in Q3 2022), translating to 10.6 minutes per flight.
Airline related delay causes fell, those such as ramp handling, passenger boarding, staff shortage, (etc.) however they still ranked second at 5.2 minutes per flight.
En-route ATFM delay remained high at 2.9 minutes per flight, however it did remain stable compared to Q3 2022.
A Flight Data Processing System (FDPS) failure in the UK and Italy generated high network ATFM delays and flight cancellations on August 28th. The failure also had effects at low-capacity airports such as those in the Greek islands as flights blocked parking positions and could not depart.
ATFM airport delays increased to 1.4 minutes per flight, Tel-Aviv and Lisbon saw delays due to aerodrome capacity throughout the quarter. Flights departing London Gatwick experienced en-route capacity delays throughout the quarter, impacting the first rotation in turn causing reactionary delays, the airport was also affected by ATC capacity, staffing and aerodrome capacity arrival regulations compounding the delay, the culmination of these factors resulted in low punctuality.
Weather delays were low during the quarter, however en-route seasonal weather (mainly thunderstorm activity) delays were recorded in Karlsruhe UAC, Budapest, Beograd and Zagreb ACCs.