“Already last year, the delays in the European aviation network were the worst in 25 years, and the situation this year is likely to deteriorate further,” Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas wrote in a letter to transport ministers in April, seen by POLITICO.
“Last year, Europe saw 35,000 flights on a busy summer day, this year we expect to reach 38,000,” Tzitzikostas added.
“High demand puts considerable pressure on Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), some of whom continue to struggle with staff and capacity shortages,” the commissioner acknowledged, calling on governments to start “hiring and training additional controllers where needed.”
Calling for more controllers
But the problem cannot be solved quickly because training new air traffic controllers takes at least three years. On top of that, professional certification to manage air traffic is limited to a specific area of Europe’s fragmented airspace, which is managed by 40 different ANSPs.
CAE, a Canadian company that specializes in training services, recently forecast that Europe will need the most air traffic controllers of any region over the next decade — 27,000 out of 71,000 globally.
Meanwhile, airlines are going ballistic.