Airline boss welcomes 200th plane – but predicts more air-traffic control delays in Europe this summer

Airline passengers in Europe face another summer of air-traffic control delays, a leading budget airline boss has warned. Marion Geoffroy, UK managing director for Wizz Air, told The Independent’s daily travel podcast that delays caused by air-traffic control “would not be remedied” in summer 2024. During the summer of 2023, airlines and their passengers faced frequent delays across Europe due to pressure on air-traffic control. Shortages of controllers were exacerbated by closures of airspace over Ukraine. “We know for sure that in July and August, we will be accumulating delays,” said Ms Geoffroy. But, she said, “buffers in the schedule” would allow the operation to stay on track. In the summer of 2023, airlines blamed air-traffic control limitations for many cancellations – including easyJet grounding the same flight on successive nights. Summer 2024 will see an increase in traffic of at least 5%, according to the pan-European air-traffic coordinator, Eurocontrol. Pressure will increase due to extra flights to and from Germany for the Euro 2024 football championships in June and July, and serving Paris for the Olympics shortly afterwards. Eurocontrol has set out five priorities for the summer: Air-traffic control to deliver the agreed capacity; Airlines to have realistic scheduling; All to prioritise the first rotation of aircraft; All to ensure disciplined flight plan execution; and All to contribute to better managing convective weather. A spokesperson for Eurocontrol said: “Overall, we are seeing strong support from the entire aviation industry for this strategy and we are confident that this combined effort will pay off.”<br/>