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EU makes important announcement: This will be the worst summer ever for flight delays and cancellations

2025-07-09 23:42:33 / BOTA ALFA PRESS
EU makes important announcement: This will be the worst summer ever for flight

The European Union has warned that flight delays this summer could reach their worst levels ever, due to air traffic control staff shortages, strikes, fires and high demand for travel.

EU officials said on Wednesday that the air traffic control system is operating at its limits due to staff shortages and a significant increase in demand for flights following the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Last year we had the worst summer ever in terms of delays and cancellations. This year will be very similar," said a senior EU official.

On the busiest days, around 37,000 flights circulate in European airspace, which is roughly the limit of air traffic controllers' capacity, the same official added, according to the Financial Times.

Eurocontrol, the body responsible for air traffic control in Europe, said in April that air traffic this year was 5% higher compared to the same period in 2024. Similarly, delays in air traffic management were also 5% higher.

"The lack of air traffic control capacity to cope with demand is expected to cause significant delays" in nine countries, including France, Germany, Greece and Spain, which are some of the most popular tourist destinations in the region.

The situation is also being exacerbated by strikes by air traffic controllers, especially in France. Two days of strikes by air traffic controllers at French airports last week, over outdated equipment and staff shortages, caused disruptions to about 4,000 flights across the EU, Eurocontrol said. Thursday's strike alone cost the organization about 100 euros per minute, according to the organization.

Air France-KLM, which operates many flights from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, risked huge financial losses due to the disruptions, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said.

Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the EU's transport commissioner, said the bloc is operating with reduced airspace due to the war in Ukraine, and this, coupled with a shortage of controllers, "threatens to overburden the air network and disappoint passengers."

With airports "more congested than ever before", "Europe cannot afford chaos in the skies", he added.

Steve Heapy, Jet2's chief executive, told investors on Wednesday that the strikes had caused "a lot of customers to be concerned", even though the airline had continued flights.

Fires are also a major problem. Europe is one of the regions most exposed to climate change, with fires forcing the temporary closure of Marseille airport on Tuesday.

In Greece, tourist attractions like the Acropolis have been closed due to extreme heat.

The senior official said the effects of climate change are "a major concern. We expect more extreme weather events in the future," many of which are "quite dangerous for aviation."

Another major cause of delays is the shortage of air traffic controllers. Tzitzikostas sent a letter to EU transport ministers ahead of a meeting in June, urging them to ensure that controllers “actually deliver the capacity they have officially promised and are deployed in the places and times where the need is greatest.”

Officials said that while some pilots can earn flying licenses within a year, in some parts of Europe, air traffic control staff must undergo five years of training, and that the commission was trying to work with aviation safety agencies to review those rules.

Rafael Schvartzman, vice president for Europe at the International Air Transport Association, said the ever-increasing delays were “unacceptable.” “The gap between targets and reality is approaching fantasy levels and there is no penalty for this continued failure,” he said.

Airlines are also calling on Brussels to complete the "Single European Sky" project, an initiative that would allow operators to fly the most direct route possible within the EU, rather than following diversions due to fragmented air traffic control.

"When you fly from London Stansted to Cyprus, you pass through several airspace points in the sky. It's not a straight line at all... but the EU has been disappointingly slow," said a source close to a major tour operator.

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