Traffic recovery in 2023 continued steadily, with 7% growth and 93% of 2019 levels network-wide. Important changes in regional flows, a continued constraint of the European airspace due to the on-going war in Ukraine, and conflicts in the Middle East added a lot of complexities to the network.
With that level of saturation, only solid partnership and commitment from the Network Manager, Member States and operational stakeholders made summer 2023 manageable. As a result of this joint work and cooperation, the clear common objective of making summer 2023 manageable was achieved, despite the complexities and the significant increase in traffic. The eight-week Rolling Network Operations Plan (NOP) proved an exceptional tool, giving unprecedented insight into expected traffic and capacity.
Despite the traffic increase, ATFM delays per flight were similar to those recorded in the previous summer. Bad weather hit operations much harder in summer 2023 than in 2022 and contributed significantly to delays, revealing an area with significant room for improvement in the network response. Another cause of significant ATFM delays were several industrial actions, especially in March and April 2023. Overall, NM Operations Centre’s direct action on individual flights saved more than 3.2 million minutes of ATFM delay representing 10% of en-route ATFM delays and more than 5% of airport ATFM delays.
Other actions during the year included:
- Updating the Network Strategy Plan (NSP), accommodating lessons learnt from the COVID-19 crisis and a stronger political commitment towards sustainability and digitalisation
- Working towards a signle value chain in close collaboration with the SESAR Joint Undertaking and SESAR Deployment Manager
- Completing the transition to the new ops centre in May 2023 and advancements on iNM
- Carrying out several CNS Network Infrastructure acitivities