Hurricane Sandy causes air traffic decrease with no effect on delays

October proved to be a month tempered by bad weather and industrial action, with varying consequences for air traffic in Europe.

While Hurricane Sandy had no effect on delays, it meant a reduction of an estimated 1,000 Europe-North Atlantic flights. Adverse weather conditions across European airports did however mean significant delays for major airports, particularly London Heathrow.

Meanwhile a French strike taking place on 22-24 October produced a total 70,000 minutes of delay. When combined with staffing issues in Portugal, this led to extra delays for Spanish airports. The Greek strike of 18 October, however, had no significant impact on air traffic.

Overall, delays in October were below the rolling 12-month average. At an average of 1.1 minutes of delay per flight, figures show a reduction on October 2011’s average of 2.1 minutes. (EUROCONTROL October 2012).

Read more about current developments in European air traffic.