15 Operational cancellation rate
15.1 EUROCONTROL recommended values
Below is presented the rate of IFR flight cancellations in Europe.
Source: EUROCONTROL data. Detailed data are available upon request
According to EUROCONTROL Specification for Operational ANS Performance Monitoring - Air Transport Operator Data Flow, which is referenced in Commission Implementing Regulation EU No 2019/317 as a document containing the provisions for information that needs to be provided by the airlines, an ‘operational cancellation’ refers to a scheduled arrival or departure flight to which the following conditions apply:
the flight received an airport slot (if the airport is subject to slot coordination), and
the flight was confirmed by the air carrier the day before operations and/or it was contained in the daily list of flight schedules produced by the airport operator the day before operations, but
the actual landing or take-off never occurred.
Reports about all causes of delay (and cancellation up to 2019) are available in the EUROCONTROL library.
In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic strongly influenced the entire aviation industry with more than double the cancellation rate seen in 2019.