Air traffic services provider NATS handled 240,672 flights in August, marking a 5% increase compared to the same month in 2023.
The fastest-growing markets were Türkiye and the Canary Islands, with flight numbers up 15% and 12% respectively compared to August 2023. Transatlantic flights also saw an 11% rise during the same period.
“We are now very close to the record levels of traffic we had in 2019, and at some points in the day, parts of the network are exceeding those previous levels,” said Kathryn Leahy, chief operations officer, NATS. “I think we can safely say that we will soon be into new record figures, and comparisons with pre-pandemic traffic will be firmly in the past.”
NATS handled 24% of Europe’s air traffic in August, according to data from Eurocontrol.