NATS handled 206,315 flights in June, which is an increase of 2.4 per cent when compared to the same period last year.

Scheduled traffic rose at ten out of the fifteen airports where NATS operate air traffic control.

Leading this growth was Cardiff with a rise of 13.2 per cent followed by Farnborough with a 9.4 per cent rise and Stansted with an 8.8 per cent rise.

With 18,331 minutes of delay recorded, last month was the third lowest June delay total since records began, despite a large year on year increase in traffic as the peak summer period gets underway.

Measures taken to mitigate the effects of the industrial action in France and Belgium resulted in Oceanic Area Control recording its highest daily traffic figure to date with 1,564 movements.

The leading market segments last month were Non-transatlantic Overflights with growth of 4.3 per cent, followed by Non-transatlantic arrivals/departures with 3.7 per cent growth and Transatlantic Overflights with 3.6 per cent growth.

Martin Rolfe, managing director operations, NATS, said: “Last month saw disruption due to the industrial action in France and Belgium, which led to an inevitable traffic increase for us as we continued to work as normal.

“Alongside this we have handled the increase in scheduled traffic and once again kept delays to a minimum, which is brilliant news for passengers, as well as our airport and airline customers, as we enter our peak season.”