‘Near Standstill’ for Europe Air Travel Forecast

Growing congestion could bring air travel in Western Europe to a “near standstill” within the next 10 years unless air-space management is radically reorganized, a report released today warned.

The congestion has already caused serious problems, said the report, prepared for the International Air Transport Assn. One out of every four flights was delayed more than 15 minutes last year, costing the industry about $5 billion for additional fuel and other expenses, it said.

With European air traffic expected to double to 500 million passengers by the year 2000 and to triple by 2010, present capacity of the transport system “will be unable to cope with increases in air travel past 1995,” it said.

“Of the three major airport areas--London, Frankfurt, and Paris--only Paris has excess capacity,” it said. “No solution is seen for Frankfurt’s capacity shortfall. Passenger growth at the three London-area airports will exceed terminal capacity by the mid-1990s, and aircraft movement will exceed runway capacity by the year 2004.”