TRAFFIC through UK airspace, handled by Hampshire-based air traffic services provider NATS, continued to grow over the summer holiday months compared to last year.

NATS, which is based inas Swanwick, handled 234,501 flights in July, an increase of 2.2 per cent compared to July 2014 and 229,271 flights in August, up 1.8 per cent from August last year.

In August domestic flights within UK airspace also rose for the tenth consecutive month.

There was an increase in NATS-attributable delay per-flight in both months for a number of reasons, including an increase in traffic, which resulted in some restrictions to flow rates.

The average delay per flight rose from 3.29 seconds in July 2014 to 3.95 seconds in July this year. August also saw an increase in the average delay per flight from 2.95 seconds in 2014 to 5.51 seconds this year.

However, in both months, 99.6 per cent of all flight experienced no delay at all.