European traffic down 2% in October; ETS postponed for international flights

European flights decreased by 2% in October compared to the same month in 2011. Hurricane Sandy impacted the North Atlantic traffic and contributed to around 0.1% of this monthly decline.

ATFCM en-route delay reported by airlines fell sharply to 0.4 minutes per flight from 1.0 minutes per flight in October 2011.

The European Commission temporarily suspended the inclusion of international aviation into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for flights to and from non-EU countries, this measure being valid until autumn 2013 to allow ICAO to finalize a global emissions scheme. ETS currently applies to internal flights that begin and end within the EU27 countries (plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

More about trends in European air traffic in November 2012