The EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) safely handled 1,794,971 flights across its airspace in 2024, representing an increase of 5% compared to the previous year.
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This demonstrates the continued increase in demand for air travel, as well as the ability of MUAC to respond to the rise in demand and provide safe, efficient and reliable air navigation services in what is one of the busiest and most complex airspaces in Europe.
As anticipated, it was during the summer that the highest volume of traffic was recorded in MUAC’s airspace. From the beginning of June to the end of September 2024, MUAC handled flights; representing an increase of 3% compared to the same period the previous year. The factors contributing to this increase include the typical seasonal uptick in flights for the summer period as well as additional flight schedules related to major sporting events in Germany and France.
In terms of peak traffic periods, July was the busiest month for MUAC with 172,195 flights. The busiest day of the year was also in July with 5,649 flights on 11 July, coinciding with the beginning of the summer holiday period. This figure is just short of the all-time daily flight record that was set in 2018.
In terms of delay, MUAC reported an average delay of 0.20 minutes per flight across the full year with weather as the primary cause. This was lower than the prediction of 0.23 minutes per flight and in line with the previous year. This was achieved due to pre-tactical and tactical management as well as advanced Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) techniques using MUAC’s iFMP.
Reflective of its unique area of responsibility, which includes managing the upper airspace of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and north-west Germany, the top 5 destinations for flights through MUAC’s airspace in 2024 were Amsterdam, Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris and Stansted respectively.
In 2024, MUAC continued to invest in initiatives to enhance efficiency in its airspace, while also supporting environmental efforts. Initiatives included the implementation of Continuous Descent Operations (CDO) into Frankfurt together with Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), which allows aircraft to follow an optimum vertical flight path (for arrivals from the North-West); in addition to the use of ATS B2 technology allowing not only vertical but also lateral trajectory optimisations to be implemented.
In addition, two operational contrail prevention trials were initiated, one of which, in conjunction with Google, harnesses the potential of satellite imagery and AI to predict regions where contrails may develop. MUAC’s ATM Portal also marked a milestone by achieving 10,000 ECO rerouting proposals; offering airlines new routings with an estimated reduced environmental impact.