19  IFR average flight distance and duration

19.1 EUROCONTROL recommended values

Table 19.1 presents an overview of the average flight distance flown in the ECAC region, as well as the average flight time in the same region for the period 2017-2022.

The data was obtained by dividing the total distance actually flown and the total yearly IFR flight hours, respectively, by the yearly number of IFR flights in the ECAC airspace. Please note that the numbers for 2020 and 2021 are considerably lower due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Table 19.1: Average IFR flight distance and duration in ECAC

Year	Distance (km)	Distance (NM)	Flight time (min)
2017	1,197	646	98.4
2018	1,209	653	100.1
2019	1,220	659	101.3
2020	510	275	97.5
2021	661	357	100.0
2022	1,067	576	108.7
Source: EUROCONTROL (2022) Performance Review Report (PRR) 2021; EUROCONTROL (2022) Performance Review Report (PRR) 2020; STATFOR Interactive Dashboard

With regard to flight distance, Figure 19.1 illustrates that nearly 90% of IFR flight distances for flights arriving or departing within the Network Manager area (excl. overflights) are less than 1,000NM long.

Figure 19.1: Distribution of traffic demand per distance band in 2022 within the EUROCONTROL Network Manager area

19.2 Related inputs

Chapter 20 IFR flight information per market segment

Chapter 21 DIstance flown by charging zone