Europe: Passengers set for more flight delays by 2040, says Eurocontrol

The number of European flights delayed by up to 2 hours is set to increase seven-fold by 2040 due to greater travel demand and a lack of capacity on the ground and in the air to keep up with the growth, European network manager Eurocontrol said. Eurocontrol, which manages Europe’s air traffic network, said in a report Tuesday that flights in its region are due to increase 53% by 2040, but that airport capacity is set to rise by only 16%. It predicts that by 2040, around 470,000 passengers per day will be delayed by up to 2 hours, compared with around 50,000 passengers today. Airports therefore need to construct more runways or deploy technology to make better use of the runways, Eurocontrol DG Eamonn Brennan said. “By 2040, there will be 1.5m flights we can’t handle, that’s 160m passengers who can’t fly,” he said. Plans for a new runway at London Heathrow were earlier this month backed after decades of delay, although the project could still face challenges before building starts. “It’s nearly impossible to build a runway in Europe today,” Brennan said. Europe is already struggling to cope this year, Brennan added. Airlines have squarely attacked air traffic control as the reason for recent flight delays, citing strikes in France and staff shortages. Eurocontrol has said it expects 14.3m minutes of delay for 2018, up by 5m, or a 53% jump from 2017. With each minute of delay estimated to cost E70, that’s an extra E30m of costs for airlines to cope with.<br/>