For Week 27 (30 June - 6 July 2025):
Traffic: 34,860 daily flights, up +0.1% vs the previous week, +1% vs 2024, and 98% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Traffic is gradually shifting back to normal routings, especially for flights operated by Gulf carriers – but the network was significantly impacted by French air traffic control (ATC) industrial action from 2 to 5 July 2025.
Air traffic flow management (ATFM) delays: Averaged 5.8 minutes per flight — a 61% increase from the previous week, and 9% higher than in 2024. A total of 63,440 flights were delayed by air traffic flow management (ATFM) restrictions in Week 27, an average of 9,063 flights a day and 26% of all flights. The main reason for the increase is related to French air traffic control (ATC) industrial action.
Arrival punctuality was down vs Week 26 to 67%, but better by 3.8 percentage points than last year.
Network hot spots:
- France (50% of all delays in the network): Hit hard by French ATC industrial action coupled with ongoing capacity and staffing issues. This led to severe disruption for passengers, airlines and airports as well as for many air navigation service providers (ANSPs) in the network, which had to handle additional demand to limit the overall effects of this disruption.
- Spain (10% of all delays in the network): Affected by capacity issues related to high demand and weather.
- Germany (10% of all delays in the network): Impacted mostly by weather and some capacity issues.
French ATC industrial action:
- 330,000 minutes of direct ATFM delays in France caused by the French ATC industrial action that took place from 2 to 5 July 2025.
- 43,000 minutes of indirect ATFM delays caused in adjacent ATC units by the French ATC industrial action, as a result of the extra demand caused by re-routed flights.
- 3,343 fewer flights to/from French airports compared to the previous week – all of which were cancelled as a result of the French ATC industrial action; additional flights might have been cancelled across Europe without the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) being notified.
- 1,206 fewer overflights of French airspace compared to the previous week: these flights may have been re-routed or cancelled as a result of the French ATC industrial action.
Network Operations Plan (NOP) Delivery:
- With 3.9% year-to-date traffic growth, en-route ATFM delay so far is 12.4% below 2024 performance, with excellent delivery by all ANSPs in South-East Europe, Central Europe, Italy and Switzerland, with further reductions to expected delays in Germany.
- Most ANSPs are delivering the agreed capacity.
- However, Marseille ACC is not fully providing the required capacity (generating 340K delay minutes – including the impact of the ATC strike).
Actions to be taken: Bordeaux, Brest and Reims Area Control Centres (ACCs) will need to revise their plans to align with the NOP for the upcoming weeks.
Airports: Actions with Dublin, Paris CDG and Naples to address insufficient delivery against schedule capacity are ongoing; discussions with Athens are closed.