The volume of flights handled in the year of 2.1m was 1.9 % lower than the previous year , reflecting the weak UK and European economies and airlines increasing aircraft load factors .
The level of delay attributable to NATS Airspace represented an average delay per flight of 1.3 seconds , with 99.9 % of flights not delayed ( 2012 : 99.3 %). This was achieved despite releasing operational staff for Olympics training in the first half of the year and reflects the benefit of iFACTS ( interim Future Area Control Tools Support ) which reduces controller workload in planning and maintaining safe separation , allowing more flights to be handled with improved safety . Last year NATS Airspace achieved 7.0 seconds when frontline staff were being trained on iFACTS . The average delay per delayed flight was also lower at 15.6 minutes ( 2012 : 16.6 minutes ).
This service performance is within the CP3 par value targets ( adjusted for lower traffic volumes than assumed in the CP3 settlement ) for the Olympic period and for the rest of the 2012 calendar year , and earned a bonus of £ 6.8m ( 2012 : £ 5.4m ).
2013 2012
Year-on-year change
(‘ 000s ) (‘ 000s ) % Chargeable Service Units 9,395 9,676 ( 2.9 )
Total UK traffic ( flights ): Domestic 385 395 ( 2.5 ) North Atlantic 310 322 ( 3.7 ) Other 1,431 1,450 ( 1.3 ) Total 2,126 2,167 ( 1.9 )
Oceanic traffic ( flights ): Chargeable flights 393 402 ( 2.2 )
CP3 metrics : |
|
|
2012 calendar year |
Olympics period |
Rest of period |
Target adjusted for traffic Actual
Target adjusted for traffic
Actual T1 : avg . delay per flight ( secs ) 13.6 -27.6 1.5 7.7 1.5 T2 : delay impact ( score ) 38.5-78.9 3.0 21.8 3.2 T3 : delay variability ( score ) 299.3 - 1,137.5 1.0 T4 : 3Di metric ( score ) n / a n / a 24.0 23.9
Business and financial review 29