NATS, based in Whiteley, has announced a 2.7 per cent increase in flights.

The air traffic services provider handled 230,974 flights in September, compared to the same time last year.

This included a 3.8 per cent rise in non-transatlantic arrivals and departures, with routes to Spain, France, and Italy being the busiest.

NATS managed nearly 24 per cent of European air traffic in September, as per figures from Eurocontrol.

The organisation was responsible for just 1.7 per cent of all delays, with 98 per cent of flights experiencing no NATS-related delay. For the small percentage of flights that were delayed, the average wait was 15 minutes.

Between April and September, NATS handled 1,374,498 flights, marking a 4.1 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. July was the busiest month this year, featuring the most hectic day since 2019, with 8,238 flights handled on July 15.

Kathryn Leahy, chief operations officer, said: "The airlines’ summer schedules run from April to October, so we are close to the end of a busy summer season for the industry. There have been well-reported challenges across the entire European network, including ongoing airspace capacity constraints and some very disruptive weather.

"We have seen traffic peak to near pre-pandemic levels – and exceed those levels in some areas – and our controllers have been at their professional best in providing a safe and efficient service.

"We have held industry-wide calls over the summer to support airline and airport customers during times of significant disruption (the Crowdstrike issue for example), as well as our daily ‘lookahead’ operational calls to share information we have for the following day, to help airline and airport operators in planning their schedules."

Over the past summer, NATS consistently managed almost a quarter of all European air traffic, contributing to only 1.2 per cent of total delays.

The average delay for flights affected was less than 15 minutes.

For context, during the same six-month period in 2019, NATS managed 1,429,909 flights, which also made up 24 per cent of European traffic.

In that year, the average delay for a flight was 26 minutes, while 99 per cent of flights had no NATS-related delay.