EUROCONTROL European Aviation Overview

EUROCONTROL's European Aviation Overview provides a detailed snapshot of the latest network trends.

It uses the latest traffic data to show how States, airports and airlines are performing, with further analysis of key topics, such as delays and fuel prices.

The network averaged 35,893 daily flights in Week 37, down 1.4% compared to Week 36 and 2.6% higher than in 2025.

On average, capacity among the 10 busiest carriers decreased by 1.7% compared to the previous week.

At State level, flight volumes across the busiest 10 States decreased by 1.6% compared to the previous week. Greek traffic declined the most as the summer season wound down (-5%), followed by the UK (-4%) reflecting the impacts of a major ATC technical issue on 8 September, with knock-on effects for the remainder of the week.

Network arrival and departure punctuality were 74.5% and 68.8%, better than in the equivalent week of 2025.

En-route ATFM delays increased by 22% compared to the previous week, averaging circa 75K delay minutes per day, and were 19% below 2025 levels. Total air traffic flow management (ATFM) delay per flight was 2.7 mins/flight (2.1 for en-route and 0.6 for airport).

ATC capacity & staffing was the top delay cause (60% of all en-route ATFM delays), followed by weather (33%).

The area control centres contributing the most to en-route ATFM delays (in mins/flight) were Barcelona (2.5 mins/flight), Marseille (2.2 mins/flight), Makedonia (1.8 mins/flight), Athens (1.5 mins/flight), and Belgrade (1.4 mins/flight).

Jet fuel prices have rebounded sharply in September 2026 and are now approaching the April all-time highs as the US-Iran conflict resumed. On 11 September 2026, jet fuel prices averaged $4.58 per gallon, up 18% from the previous two weeks.

Air ticket prices (excluding inflation) were circa 1% lower in January-July 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.

EUROCONTROL billed €1,212 million in en-route charges in August 2026, up 3% compared to August 2025. The growth reflects a 1% rise in unit rates combined with a 1% increase in total en-route Service Units.