What is the average flight in the EUROCONTROL area?

What does an ‘average flight’ look like in the EUROCONTROL area? And, more importantly, if we look at how it has changed over the last five years, what does it tell us about overall aviation trends?

In terms of distance, the average flight in 2023 was 1,140 km crossing 3.5 countries. Setting aside the “COVID years” (2020-21) when flights were shorter because of the travel restrictions, flight distance has been growing since 2018. This trend is to some extent driven by regional and domestic flights being substituted by alternative modes of transport such as high-speed rail services.

At the same time, the fleet mix has changed with fewer turboprop aircraft operating and an increased use of narrow-body aircraft offering greater range capabilities and higher cruising speeds. This change also contributed to the continued increase in average aircraft mass between 2018 and 2023 reaching an average maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 89 tonnes in 2023. This is slightly above the weight of a typical Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 which are the most common aircraft types operating in European airspace.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, ANSPs experienced an unprecedented drop in demand requiring them to downscale operations as quickly as possible, while still ensuring a safe and reliable service to those flights still operating. Many ANSPs implemented measures in response to the traffic downturn, but these could not prevent a massive increase in unit costs in 2020 and 2021.

With jet aircraft operating most efficiently at higher altitudes, the average flight climbed to flight level (FL) 350 in 2023 – around 35,000ft and some 500ft higher than in 2018. Achieved flight levels were particularly high during the COVID-related traffic reduction and the subsequent removal of many flow management measures in 2021, but decreased again as traffic returned in 2022.

Overall traffic in 2023 (10.2 million flights) was down on 2018 (11.0 million flights) but, as can be seen, there are clear trends behind this headline figure.

Donload the 46th Data Snapshot: 46th EUROCONTROL Data Snapshot on the average flight in the EUROCONTROL area.