ENAIRE broke the daily air traffic record six times this summer
ENAIRE managed 439,342 flights this summer (220,719 flights in July and 218,733 flights in August), 2% more than in the same period in 2018, with traffic peaks exceeding the record reached in 2018 six times.
The busiest day this year was Saturday, 20 July, when ENAIRE controlled 7,425 flights. Last year, the busiest day was 4 August, also a Saturday, with 7,318 flights.
Growth has slowed, but even so Spain continues to expand (3.7% in the first 8 months) faster than the European average (1.5%).
Spain continues to expand faster than the European averageENAIRE, which manages 16% of the air traffic in Europe, has already seen 71 months of uninterrupted growth.
All traffic types increased this summer (July and August), except for international traffic: overflights (those not taking off from or landing at a Spanish airport) grew the fastest at 6.1% and 92,565 flights; domestic flights rose by 4.4%, totalling 80,740, and international flights stood at 266,147, a 0.07% decrease.
By control centre, Seville's figures grew the most (5%), followed by Madrid (2.1%) and Barcelona (1.9%). In contrast, Palma fell by 1.7% while growth in the Canary Islands was very close to 0%.
Cumulative data from January to August
In the first 8 months of the year, ENAIRE managed more than 1.4 million flights (1,457,366), an increase of 3.7% compared to the same period in 2018.
Of the total, 851,370 flights were international (+2.3%), 291,482 were domestic (+4.6%) and 314,514 were overflights (+6.7%).
Summer Plan: The fruits of our effort
As part of the Summer Plan, at the start of the year ENAIRE rolled out a series of technical and operational initiatives to manage the growth of air traffic while offering every assurance in terms of safety, capacity, efficiency, sustainability and quality of service.
These measures translated into a framework of continuous collaboration with Aena, the airlines and airline associations, other air navigation providers from other countries and the European network manager, EUROCONTROL.
This summer, ENAIRE's contribution was fundamental to the initiative of the Network Manager (EUROCONTROL) and its network action plan, intended to mitigate air traffic congestion in some European countries and containing specific incentives such as diverting almost a thousand flights a day from April to November so that traffic flows can avoid the saturated areas of Karlsruhe (Germany), Marseille (France) and Maastricht (Netherlands), which have capacity problems.
70% of the air traffic regulations in Spain recorded from January to August were due to regulations in Europe.
Spain successfully managed 160 additional flights a day
In this operational scenario, ENAIRE fulfilled its commitment to EUROCONTROL to improve how flights are managed in the airspace between Spain and France, where the traffic is heavy during the peak season. Specifically, ENAIRE has accepted some 160 additional flights a day by re-routing 48 new routes, thus helping to reduce the impact of delays in busy areas across the European network as a whole.
ENAIRE also promoted a series of measures across its five control centres, in addition to measures specific to each, in keeping with their specific characteristics and needs.
Good results for ENAIRE's ATENEA Plan and the "BCN A PUNT" initiative
The "BCN A PUNT" initiative warrants special recognition. Promoted by the Ministry of Works to maximise both land-side and air-side capacity at the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, this initiative is a joint project between ENAIRE (through the ATENEA Office), Aena, the Civil Aviation General Directorate, Aesa and EUROCONTROL.
The net result of all this has been a considerable reduction (54% from January to August) in delays attributable to air navigation at El Prat.
About ENAIRE
ENAIRE is the company belonging to the Public Works Department that provides air navigation services in Spain. It renders aerodrome control services at 21 airports, including the busiest in terms of air traffic, plus en-route and approach control, from five control centres: Barcelona, Madrid, Gran Canaria, Palma and Seville.
In 2018 ENAIRE handled 2.1 million flights to and from four continents (Europe, America, Asia and Africa), transporting 300 million passengers. ENAIRE has managed 1,457,366 flights so far this year, 4% more than in the same period in 2018.
ENAIRE is the fourth most important European air navigation service provider, and, in a clear commitment to the Single Sky initiative, belongs to international partnerships such as SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, A6, iTEC, CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).
Number of the Department of communication +34 912 967 551
Communication department email address comunicacion@enaire.es