Summer flight delays escalate in Greece with Middle East rerouting

Greece has become a key transit point as the summer travel season intensifies demand and rerouting from the Middle East raises the level of European air traffic. Athens FIR accounts for 14% of total en-route ATFM delays, with the Athens Area Control Center at 9.5% and the Macedonia sector at 4.4% in the first half of June. Eurocontrol data show Europe averaging 34,983 flights per day, up 1.2% year over year, while ATFM delays fell 29% to 2.3 minutes per flight and arrivals punctuality reached 76%. France and Spain remain the main delay hotspots, responsible for 28% and 23.2% of total delays respectively.