Air traffic 'on the rise'

The UK saw increased levels of air traffic during January, according to new figures.

Nats, an air traffic management provider operating, reported that the number of flights that it dealt with last month increased by 3.7 when compared to 2006's figures, reports AFX.

The company states that it dealt with 184,018 flights during January and destinations which saw particularly large growth included Poland, Germany and Spain.

Transatlantic flights were also found to have increased.

Nats states that transatlantic arrivals and departures increased by 7.7 per cent and overflights rose by 7.1 per cent.

In January, the air traffic management company reported 2006 was a "record year" for air travel as it handled 2,386,105 flights - which represented an overall increase of 3.5 per cent on flights that were recorded in 2005.

Today's figures from Nats follow statistics released by BAA last week which showed that the number of passengers using its airports increased by 1.7 per cent during the course of last month.

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