Hoffentlich pünktlich: Flugzeugstart in Köln-Bonn
Foto: Henning Kaiser / dpa
During the summer months from June to August, two out of three passenger flights in Europe were on time. This information was shared by the aviation safety organization Eurocontrol on Tuesday. The percentage of flights that arrived no later than 15 minutes according to the schedule increased by 2.1 points from the previous year’s summer, reaching 66 percent.
The punctuality rate of 72.9 percent from the pre-Corona year 2019 was once again significantly missed, despite a decrease of around seven percent in flights guided by air traffic controllers. In total, nearly three million flights (2019: over 3.2 million) were monitored during the three months. Especially the relatively unstable weather caused additional delays this summer.
The average delay caused by air traffic control interventions, including weather-related diversions, increased to 3.8 minutes per flight (2022: 3.7 minutes).
The air traffic in Europe is barely better than the Deutsche Bahn, which is often criticized for its lack of punctuality. For August, the state-owned company stated that 63.4 percent of its long-distance trains arrive on time. The railway company justifies the low value by citing the numerous construction sites throughout the rail network, with almost 70 percent of all long-distance trains having to pass through at least one construction site. However, the rail chaos was even worse last year. In August 2022, only 56.8 percent of arrivals were on time.