EUROCONTROL

Essential New Year reading 📄: our latest #Aviation #SustainabilityBriefing looks at #AZEA's ambitious objective to have 36% to 68% of intra-EU flights operated by hydrogen & electric-powered aircraft 🌱 ✈️ by 2050. 👉 AZEA, the Alliance for Zero-Emission Aviation, is led by the European Commission & supported by EUROCONTROL. Its vision to enable the widespread operation of hydrogen & electric-powered flights in Europe reflects the determination of the European aviation ecosystem to invest in future technologies & make aviation as climate-friendly as possible 🌍. 🍃 ✈️ Development into aircraft or powertrains using electricity & hydrogen as novel energy sources is already underway across Europe. But to enable the operation & use of these technological innovations, joint action needs to be taken... 👉 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eqqu4UqD

📊 2024 in a nutshell: almost 10.7M flights ✈️, ⬆️5% vs 2023 with ⏰ arrival punctuality at 73% (⬆️2% vs 2023). 👉 As the 7-day traffic evolution for 2019-2024 shows, traffic last year closely mirrored 2019 levels at 96% (2019 total flights: 11.1M), although with considerable regional variance (for example, in the ten busiest States, ranging from ⬆️18% in Greece to ▼9% in Norway of 2019 levels; and between zero in Ukraine to ⬆️48% Armenia looking across the entire network). The top 3s contributing to those 10,689,699 flights (figures rounded below): 📌 States: 2.01M ✈️ ◁▷ the UK 🇬🇧 , 1.82M ◁▷ Spain 🇪🇸 & 1.72M ◁▷ Germany 🇩🇪 📌 #Airlines: 1.11M ✈️ operated by Ryanair Group, 0.57M by easyJet Group & 0.52M by Turkish Airlines 📌 #Airports: 0.51M ✈️ ◁▷ iGA Istanbul Airport, 0.49M ◁▷ Amsterdam Schiphol & 0.48M ◁▷ London Heathrow 📊 For more unique aviation data in your pocket, 24/7, 👉 check out our EUROCONTROL DATA app on Apple/Google Play.

A big welcome to Iceland 🇮🇸, our newest Member State joining us today! Iceland becomes as of today, 1 January 2025, our 42nd Member State - enlarging the European aviation network. 💬 EUROCONTROL DG Raúl Medina Caballero: "It's an important step forward for the European aviation ✈️ network. 🤝 Thanks in particular to ICETRA DG Jón Gunnar Jónsson for his leadership during the accession process & to Hlín Holm, ICETRA Head of ANS, ADR & SEC who was a key enabler in the technical negotiations". 💬 Icelandic Transport Authority DG Jon Gunnar Jonsson: "Aviation and air navigation are vitally important for Iceland, acting as a key economic driver of growth and prosperity, as well as comprising the primary mode of transport across borders. Joining EUROCONTROL marks a logical step and is testimony to our long standing cooperation." Read the press release here: https://lnkd.in/exJfZrta

2 days to go to year-end totals, but W52 clearly shows more Xmas week traffic 🎄✈️ than 2023 in 9/10 busiest States, and globally ⬆️4% vs 2023. ⏰ Overall arrival punctuality was 70.5% for a total of 23,363 average daily flights ✈️ for the period 23-29.12. On a State level in W52: 📌 The UK 🇬🇧 stayed top over the 7-day period with 4,356 daily average ✈️, ⬆️3% vs 2023 (despite being in 5th place on Xmas Day) 📌 2nd place Spain 🇪🇸 (4,150 average daily ✈️) & 10th place Poland 🇵🇱 (960 daily average flights ✈️) were most improved vs 2023, both at ⬆️7% 📌 Only 7th placed the Netherlands 🇳🇱 (1,354 average daily ✈️) saw fewer flights than the same period last year (▼2%) Busiest #airline group Ryanair flew 2,376 daily average ✈️, ⬆️7% vs 2023, while busiest #airport iGA Istanbul Airport managed 1,377 daily average ✈️, ⬆️5% vs 2023. 👉 For more unique aviation data 📊, check out our EUROCONTROL DATA app on Apple/Google Play.

A quick look at Xmas Day traffic 🎄✈️ shows 15,598 flights across the network. But flying on which carriers, where? 🤔 As usual, it's a different-look top 10 to any other day, with no flights at all performed by #1 group Ryanair. On the #airline front, of note on the 25th: 📌 1,339 ✈️ by Turkish Airlines Group, in 1st place & very close to their year-to-date daily average (1,436, 3rd place) 📌 800 ✈️ by WizzAir Group, up to 3rd compared to 8th place YTD (837) 📌 423 ✈️ by easyJet puts the Group in 8th, vs YTD 1,554 & 2nd 📌 3 airline groups in the YTD top 10 don't appear (British Airways, SAS & Ryanair), with 3 from the YTD top 20 making the Xmas Day top 10 (Pegasus, Iberia Group & SWISS group) 👉 At State level, fewer easyJet, British Airways & zero Ryanair flights all contributed to the network's normally busiest State the UK 🇬🇧 dropping to 5th (1,664 ✈️ vs a YTD daily average of 5,499), with Spain 🇪🇸 seeing on the 25th the most traffic, 2,634 ✈️ (vs 4,993 YTD daily average). 2nd busiest on the 25th was Türkiye 🇹🇷 on 2,491 ✈️, compared to a YTD average of 3,148 and 6th place overall. Otherwise, similar rankings. Finally, a fairly similar-looking top 10 #airports albeit operating at varying ranges of normal levels, headed as in most weeks by iGA Istanbul Airport. iGA's 1,331 ✈️ on the 25th was closest to YTD levels (1,402); Amsterdam Schiphol was 2nd on the day with 1,046 ✈️ vs 1,338 YTD. 3rd place Paris CDG (1,043 ✈️) & 4th place London Heathrow (866 ✈️) reverse their YTD rankings (1,275 & 1,302 average daily ✈️ respectively). For more unique aviation data 📊, check out our EUROCONTROL DATA app on Apple/Google Play.

🎄 And as much of the network enters the Xmas 🎅 period, a quick look back at W51 & holiday traffic evolution ✈️. As the rolling 7-day average shows, flights in December have been steadily increasing 📈: 📌 26,938 average daily ✈️ in W51, compared to 25,103 on the 7-day period ending on 9 December 📌 29,612 ✈️ on Friday 20.12, the busiest pre-Xmas day (vs 25,788 on Saturday & 26,511 on Sunday) 📌 traffic ⬆️4% vs W50 (& ⬆️8% compared to the same period last year) 👉 Overall, the busiest 10 States all saw more flights week-on-week, with notable increases in 8th busiest Switzerland 🇨🇭 (1,315 daily ✈️ & ⬆️9%), 4th busiest France 🇫🇷 (3,893 ✈️ & ⬆️7%) & 2nd busiest Spain 🇪🇸 (4,459 daily ✈️ & ⬆️6%). All top 10 #airports bar London Heathrow were busier than in W50, with the largest % increases at 7th busiest Barcelona (899 daily ✈️ & ⬆️6%) & 2nd busiest Paris CDG (1,307 daily ✈️ & ⬆️5%). And 8/10 of the busiest #airlines all added flights compared to W50, in particular 6th busiest Wizz Air Group (884 daily ✈️ & ⬆️11%), with Europe's busiest airline group Ryanair on 2,643 daily ✈️ & ⬆️8%. For more unique aviation data 📊, check out our EUROCONTROL DATA app on Apple/Google Play.

Festive wishes to everyone in European #aviation & beyond! As EUROCONTROL DG Raúl Medina underlines: 💬 "Happy Holidays if you're taking a break 🎄 & hearty thanks 🙏 if you're working over this busy festive period for aviation. Sincere thanks 👏 to our Member States, partner organisations & stakeholders from everyone at #TeamEUROCONTROL: we've achieved a lot together in 2024. 2025 will of course bring new challenges – but we will face them together & once more #RaiseTheBar." From the entire #TeamEUROCONTROL team: have a great break, whether you're staying put, flying ✈️ in this period, or busy keeping passengers and freight moving...

📄 Read our #Aviation #SustainabilityBriefing interview with Stephen Arrowsmith, who explains how #ANCEN, EASA's Aviation Non-CO2 Experts Network, aims to address total 🌍 climate impacts, and talks about what the Network is focusing on right now. 👉 Set up in June 2024, the EASA - European Union Aviation Safety Agency network - with the help of EUROCONTROL experts contributing with #contrail research including operational trials on contrail prediction & avoidance - aims to: ✈ coordinate efforts and approaches to #emissions reduction across industry, research & policymakers ✈ advise on how to mitigate the overall climate impacts caused by aviation's CO2 & non-CO2 emissions. Full article below 👇 https://lnkd.in/e9_XFmrg

Our #Aviation #SustainabilityBriefing interview with Antoine TOULEMONT of European Regions Airline Association & AURA-AERO looks into how regional aviation looks set to make significant progress in transforming aviation towards sustainable solutions🍃. Regional aviation has the potential to be the first segment to achieve the rollout of sustainable aircraft technology, to use extensively sustainable aviation fuel, and to optimise air traffic services. 🔌 In our #ASB interview, Antoine explains some of the current key challenges facing the regional aviation market, and how electric manufacturer AURA AERO is making significant progress in terms of developing hybrid-electric regional aircraft. 👉 Read the interview here: https://lnkd.in/ehAtU2CH

🚀 Our latest #Skyway Magazine explores how our Innovation Hub (#EIH) is driving transformation in airspace management 🌐✈️ By fostering collaboration and accelerating innovation, #EIH plays a crucial role in improving the efficiency of both lower & upper airspace. Farah Luu, EIH Project Manager, ✈️ talks about lower airspace operations ✈ As uncrewed aerial systems (#UAS) and electric vertical take-off and landing (#eVTOL) aircraft 🚁 become an integral part of our skies, the need for safe & scalable operations is more crucial than ever. ✈ Our focus is on creating seamless integration between #UAS, #eVTOLs, and existing airspaces, while also enabling beyond-visual-line-of-sight (#BVLOS) operations. ✈ The goal? 👉 A sustainable, competitive airspace ecosystem across Europe that supports drone operators, U-space service providers (#USSPs) and common information service providers (#CISPs). ✈️ For higher airspace operations, #EIH Validation Expert Stefano Tiberia explains how ✈ we're working on the challenges of integrating Higher Airspace Operations (#HAOs) into the future airspace system - challenging given the range of slow-moving, high altitude platform systems #HAPS aircraft to future supersonic and hypersonic aircraft ✈ we're collaborating with Italy's CAA #ENAC to prepare and execute real-time simulations using the ESCAPE simulator to explore how ATM can accommodate a range of new entrants like suborbital flights and HAPS (with by 2027 a spaceport at Grottaglie Airport hosting suborbital flights, with EIH simulations validating both nominal and non-nominal operations, ensuring the safe and efficient integration of these operations with traditional airspace users) ✈ we're contributing to the #SESAR #ECHO2 programme, shaping the future of commercial space transportation, hypersonic aircraft and more. ✈we're working to create a fully integrated airspace, from drones to hypersonic aircraft, ensuring it can scale and evolve to meet future demands. Read the full story 👉: https://lnkd.in/eYfPP8Tv #Uspace #DroneIntegration #eVTOL #HigherAirspace #AviationInnovation #SpaceTransport #ATM #FutureAirspace #Simulation #SESAR #DigitalTransformation #Aerospace