Comparing the first three weeks of 2026 to 2025 shows that traffic is up by 1.4%, arrival punctuality has increased by 1.7 percentage points, while air traffic flow management (ATFM) delays are 17% lower.
Traffic distribution is still influenced by the Middle East crisis, with lower traffic in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Türkiye, but a high increase in traffic in Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro – and continuous growth in South-West Europe.
Overall, for the year as a whole, en-route ATFM delays are 16.7% lower despite 0.8% more traffic, reflecting strong coordination by the EUROCONTROL Network Manager and all air navigation service providers (ANSPs). However, with traffic over the next month set to continue to grow, Friday traffic peaks of over 37,500 flights are expected, with highs anticipated that will surpass the existing network record (set in 2019 of 37,228 flights). This makes adherence by ANSPs to their planned Network Operations Plan capacity commitments critical.
The application of capacity and weather-based operations procedures and related scenarios continues in response to strong weather phenomena, with these in Week 25 making a major contribution to pushing ATFM delays up 25% week-on-week. Approximately 530K minutes of en-route ATFM delays have now been saved to date through the application of these updated procedures.
Of the three network hot spots, France has generated 28% of all en-route delays in the network to date (of which 10% attributed to Reims, 6% Marseille and 5% Brest area control centres (ACCs)): Affected by ongoing capacity, staffing and 4-FLIGHT transition issues. This has been compounded by some weather delays; despite this, average en-route delays are 42% lower for 2026 year to date than they were for the same period of 2025.
Spain has accounted for 22% (13% attributed to Barcelona, 3% Sevilla and 5% Madrid ACCs): Affected mostly by capacity, staffing issues and high traffic growth; average en-route delays are 28% higher for 2026 year to date than they were for the same period of 2025.
Greece has made up 14% of all en-route delays in the network to date (of which 9% attributed to Athens ACC and 4% to Makedonia ACC): Affected mostly by capacity and staffing issues, with some additional complexity due to traffic demand related to the Middle East crisis; average en-route delays are 64% higher for 2026 year to date than they were for the same period of 2025.