2024 - Statistics and Review
Entry posted by Kye Taylor in Member Services ·
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As @Ben Wright alluded to in his January 2025 Update blog post here is the longer and more detailed anaysis of the statistics of aircraft movements and controlling over the last year! Before I begin, Thank you to HS and @Jack Edwards for their support in collecting, analysing and reviewing my drafted post.
Headlines Stats
Network Traffic
Traffic growth in the UK showed no sign of slowing down last year, with around 90,000 more movements in 2024 than 2023. For the first time, UK airports saw more than half a million movements - a significant milestone! These figures count takeoffs and landings, which means domestic flights are counted twice but overflights are not included.
The average movements per day has therefore also increased significantly, from 1,327 per day in 2023 to 1,572 per day in 2024.
|
Total Movements |
% Change |
|
|
2020 |
372,032 |
- |
|
2021 |
393,052 |
5.3% |
|
2022 |
407,895 |
3.6%, |
|
2023 |
484,385 |
15.8% |
|
2024 |
573,837 |
15.2% |
|
Arrivals |
% Change |
|
|
2020 |
157,500 |
- |
|
2021 |
164,021 |
4.0% |
|
2022 |
168,761 |
2.8% |
|
2023 |
202,652 |
16.7% |
|
2024 |
241,537 |
15.6% |
|
Departures |
% Change |
|
|
2020 |
214,532 |
- |
|
2021 |
229,031 |
6.3% |
|
2022 |
239,134 |
4.2% |
|
2023 |
281,733 |
15.1% |
|
2024 |
332,300 |
14.8% |
In the global rankings, the UK had 4 of the top 15 airports on the network in 2024. Heathrow officially reclaimed the global top spot on VATSIM 🥳, easily beating second place Frankfurt (and 2023’s winner) who followed behind with 121,550 movements! Despite having only 5 VATSIM UK events hosted there!
|
Change |
World Rank |
Airport |
Departed |
Arrived |
Total |
Avg / Day |
|
+1 |
1 |
EGLL |
84,089 |
63,562 |
147,651 |
405 |
|
-2 |
5 |
EGKK |
54,490 |
33,851 |
88,341 |
242 |
|
-1 |
7 |
EGCC |
44,321 |
26,927 |
71,248 |
195 |
|
+3 |
12 |
EGPH |
32,745 |
24,322 |
57,067 |
156 |
The table below shows the top 30 UK airports ranked by total movements. Heathrow traffic grew 36.7% in 2024, which is most likely attributable to the various scenery and aircraft releases in 2024, as well as our ever increasing pool of controllers. This growth rate is similar to Luton that also saw a significant increase in traffic, with Aberdeen in 16th seeing the biggest relative increase.
Stansted and Gatwick’s movements both fell in 2024, which is the first decrease in traffic at Gatwick since we started collecting these figures in 2020.
|
Rank |
Airport |
Change |
Movements 2023 |
Movements 2024 |
% Change 23-24 |
Arrivals 2024 |
Departures 2024 |
|
1 |
EGLL |
- |
93,448 |
147,651 |
36.7% |
63,562 |
84,089 |
|
2 |
EGKK |
- |
92,700 |
88,341 |
-4.9% |
33,851 |
54,490 |
|
3 |
EGCC |
- |
66,115 |
71,248 |
7.2% |
26,927 |
44,321 |
|
4 |
EGPH |
- |
43,007 |
57,067 |
24.6% |
24,322 |
32,745 |
|
5 |
EGSS |
- |
34,167 |
31,958 |
-6.9% |
12,742 |
19,216 |
|
6 |
EGGW |
+6 |
10,190 |
15,880 |
35.8% |
6,540 |
9,340 |
|
7 |
EGGD |
-1 |
13,795 |
13,376 |
-3.1% |
5,395 |
7,981 |
|
8 |
EGBB |
-1 |
10,982 |
12,156 |
9.7% |
5,099 |
7,057 |
|
9 |
EGAA |
-1 |
10,943 |
11,982 |
8.7% |
5,617 |
6,365 |
|
10 |
EGNX |
-1 |
10,523 |
11,607 |
9.3% |
4,884 |
6,723 |
|
11 |
EGPF |
- |
10,323 |
11,378 |
9.3% |
5,287 |
6,091 |
|
12 |
EGGP |
+1 |
9,130 |
8,573 |
-6.5% |
3,655 |
4,918 |
|
13 |
EGNT |
+1 |
7,445 |
8,240 |
9.6% |
3,743 |
4,497 |
|
14 |
EGNM |
+2 |
5,332 |
7,753 |
31.2% |
3,365 |
4,388 |
|
15 |
EGLC |
- |
5,955 |
7,358 |
19.1% |
3,626 |
3,732 |
|
16 |
EGPD |
+4 |
2,720 |
4,368 |
37.7% |
2,156 |
2,212 |
|
17 |
EGAC |
+1 |
3,355 |
4,300 |
22.0% |
2,169 |
2,131 |
|
18 |
EGPE |
+1 |
2,958 |
3,155 |
6.2% |
1,611 |
1,544 |
|
19 |
EGFF |
+3 |
2,267 |
3,009 |
24.7% |
1,306 |
1,703 |
|
20 |
EGHI |
+1 |
2,401 |
2,473 |
2.9% |
1,172 |
1,301 |
|
21 |
EGHH |
+5 |
1,311 |
1,830 |
28.4% |
833 |
997 |
|
22 |
EGHQ |
+1 |
1,775 |
1,507 |
-17.8% |
774 |
733 |
|
23 |
EGMC |
+2 |
1,347 |
1,405 |
4.1% |
636 |
769 |
|
24 |
EGTE |
- |
1,649 |
1,283 |
-28.5% |
579 |
704 |
|
25 |
EGPK |
+3 |
1,192 |
1,227 |
2.9% |
554 |
673 |
|
26 |
EGSH |
+6 |
769 |
1,071 |
28.2% |
484 |
587 |
|
27 |
EGLF |
+4 |
938 |
1,034 |
9.3% |
459 |
575 |
|
28 |
EGKB |
-1 |
1,205 |
1,004 |
-20.0% |
419 |
585 |
|
29 |
EGPB |
- |
1,030 |
971 |
-6.1% |
506 |
465 |
|
30 |
EGKA |
+1 |
897 |
879 |
-2.0% |
385 |
494 |
To finish the traffic statistics, the following table shows movements at airports covered top-down by each Area Control group. Unsurprisingly, London South (covering Heathrow and Gatwick) were the highest at more than a quarter of a million. It’s worth noting though that because these are just airport movements, not all flights through the airspace are included - in fact, most Heathrow arrivals actually pass through LAG Central airspace!
The increasing traffic levels will continue to bring challenges for our area controllers, making it almost impossible to staff the same positions year-on-year without the busy aerodrome and approach controllers online too.
|
2023 |
2024 |
Growth |
|
|
LAG South |
200,539 |
252,406 |
20.5% |
|
LAG Central |
66,922 |
72,654 |
7.9% |
|
LAG North |
94,201 |
102,505 |
8.1% |
|
LAG West |
33,465 |
35,172 |
4.9% |
|
Scottish |
75,928 |
95,064 |
20.1% |
UK ATC
In 2024, our controllers spent around 43,000 hours controlling, spread over 400 UK aerodromes and area positions. Listed below are the top controlled positions over the last year.
|
Position |
Uptime |
Controlling hours |
|
Manchester Ground |
49% uptime |
over 4,300 hours |
|
Gatwick Ground |
45% uptime |
over 3.900 hours |
|
Edinburgh Ground |
37% uptime |
over 3,200 hours |
|
Heathrow Tower |
31% uptime |
over 2,700 hours |
|
Gatwick Tower |
30% uptime |
over 2,600 hours |
|
Manchester Tower (Combined) |
27% uptime |
over 2,300 hours |
|
Edinburgh Tower |
24% uptime |
over 2,100 hours |
|
Heathrow Director (Combined) |
23% uptime |
over 1,950 hours |
|
Stansted Ground |
21.88% uptime |
over 1,900 hours |
|
Gatwick Director (Combined) |
18.38% uptime |
over 1,600 hours |
Summary
The skies over the UK are getting busier than ever! Whether it's madness during our busiest events or just a standard evening, our controllers are continuing to not only cope, but also excel at handling network traffic growth that shows no signs of slowing down.. From cluttered radar screens to pilots stuck under inbounds requesting "further climb", thank you to all UK controllers who continue to provide an excellent service.✈️
Edited by Kye Taylor
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