Efficiency call to grow airport use

The study, ordered by the European Commission, says that more efficient use of take-off and landing slots could absorb some of the current congestion.

Demand already exceeds capacity most or all of the day at six European airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Paris Orly, Milan Linate, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.

While some major European airports are planning to expand and may be able to cope with the increase, others, including Heathrow, do not plan expansion and face worsening “capacity constraints”, the report warns.

There are 26,000 flights using Europe’s airspace every day, with estimated growth of five per cent a year.

Better planning and use of slots alone could generate more than five billion euro (£4.3bn) in economic benefits by 2025, the report estimates – adding up to 28 million passengers without any other modifications to airport capacity.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said: “We have been concerned that the current system of allocating take-off and landing slots at airports is inefficient, giving rise to delays and congestion.

“This has now been confirmed by today’s report, showing that up to 28 million more passengers could travel each year through Europe’s airports.”