Black July for transportation is coming to an end and we are already worried about August. We arrive at the month that statistically marks the highest movement of holidaymakers with shortness of breath, tired of the delays, cancellations and delays of all kinds that have affected planes and trains: it is hard to imagine that the things between now and the 31st. It’s a shame, because Italy will have something to cheer about this scorching summer: the recovery in traffic, especially air traffic, is greater than expected. Instead, a long-desired result immediately appeared on the other side of the coin: punctuality rates fell, cancellations, poor service. Bad luck has also come, from the IT crash on July 19 to the fire that two days ago paralyzed the high-speed line between Rome and Florence, through a domino effect of bad weather in Northern Europe and the eruption of ‘Etna.
Consumer associations pounced like hawks on the alleged perpetrators of July’s disruptions, from airlines to companies in the rail sector. Codacons has published a survey focusing on the 10 days from 16 to 25 July and taking data from RFI-Rete Ferroviaria Italiana for trains and Eurocontrol for flights. During that period, there were 74 cases of traffic slowdowns or suspensions on Italian railways that were not caused by bad weather, fire, falling trees or other causes of force majeure but were mainly related to technical problems in the train or power line. .
The real irony? The construction sites of Pnrr-sponsored works are one of the main causes of disruption to the railways. “They will improve the network but at the moment traffic bottlenecks cannot be avoided”, observed Andrea Giuricin, transport economist at the University of Milan Bicocca. «After all, the works are carried out in the summer, when there is less commuter traffic. It should also be said that Italy is not under Europe. The percentage of delays for high-speed trains is about 20% compared to, for example, 30% in Germany.” Today, RFI has like 4 thousand active construction sites for the average and unusual maintenance and opening of new lines and making investments of approximately 9 billion in 2024. From August 12 to 18 next, for example, the high-speed line will close Milan-Bologna for the replacement of points. During that time, travel times will be delayed by up to 120 minutes, while speed reductions are planned from the 19th to the 25th. The changes mainly concern Frecciarossa trains on the Turin-Milan-Rome-Naples-Salerno axis with the extension of journeys and cancellations.
As for airplanes, data collected by Eurocontrol between 15 and 21 July indicate that the punctuality of flights departing from European airports dropped to 49.7%, 18.5% lower than when 2019, reaching an average of 258 thousand minutes of delays per day, or approximately 7.5 minutes per flight, with an increase of 36% compared to the previous week. Still on the Italian consumer front, ItaliaRimborso focused instead on Friday 26 July, the date of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris. On that day, between cancellations and delays, more than 2,500 passengers in Italy will experience inconvenience and the potential compensation is estimated at one million euros.
Looking at Flightaware’s data, we understand that the problem in the sky is widespread. For example, on Sunday, July 28, there were more than 33,500 flights delayed worldwide, with more than 650 cancellations. The situation changes slightly if you look at it on a weekday, because at the height of summer the calendar makes little difference; in fact, on Tuesday 30 July there were 28,652 delays and 836 cancellations.
But it is also true that Italy is a case in itself, because this year there is an increase in flights of about 11% compared to 2023, already marked by a strong recovery. Europe is growing but not at the same pace, recording +7.4%. Compared to the daily average of 35 thousand flights in the skies of Europe, those involving Italy are almost 8 thousand. The Rome-Fiumicino airport, for example, handles a 20% higher volume of traffic and last weekend the record for flights handled in one day was broken. In fact, July saw the highest traffic increase of up to 22% compared to 2019. «No one expected such a boom; the return to pre-Covid levels came earlier than a year”, commented Giuricin. “In the summer there is also another phenomenon to be considered that slows down flight operations: the planes are traveling with higher occupancy rates and managed even just putting luggage on board wastes several minutes during flight. Solutions? European coordination would be useful. The network is so interconnected that, for example, a strike by air traffic controllers in France creates cascading problems in other airspaces.” (All rights reserved)