How about the busiest unit?
I start the bidding at 1.7 million.....
07th Jan - Year end figures from National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK's leading air traffic management provider, show that in 2004 it handled more flights than ever with fewer delays.
A total of 2,180,206 flights used UK airspace in 2004, a new annual record and an increase of 4.9 per cent on 2003. Figures show that in December 2004, NATS handled 165,045 flights, an increase of 5.3 per cent over the same period in 2003.
Despite rising traffic levels, service delivery showed significant improvement, with the average delay, per flight, attributable to NATS in 2004, falling to 25 seconds, compared to 44 seconds in 2003, a reduction of 43 per cent.
The number of flights that experienced delays attributable to NATS fell markedly. In 2004, 97.5 per cent of flights experienced no air traffic control delay, up from 95.2 per cent in 2003.
NATS Chief Executive, Paul Barron, said: "Despite record numbers of flights, NATS delivered its best performance in 2004 on record. To manage this level of traffic safely, and at the same time reducing delays, is a credit to everyone at NATS.”
The London Area Control Centre (LACC) at Swanwick, Hampshire, which handled over 1.7 million flights through 200,000 square miles of airspace above England and Wales, recorded its best performance ever in the latter part of 2004.
For a period of 24 consecutive days, between 27 November and 20 December, there were no delays to flights attributable to Swanwick and of the 133,000 flights handled in December, only 36 received a delay attributable to the centre.