Managing air traffic in Europe’s busy skies is challenging enough without unpredictable weather. Storms and turbulence can cause thousands of delays every year, forcing controllers to make rapid decisions to keep flights safe and on schedule. To improve how weather is managed, DSNA, France’s air navigation service provider, has worked with SITA to trial real-time weather tools designed to give controllers the same live data already used by pilots and airline dispatchers.
The proof-of-concept at the Reims Control Centre tested SITA’s Enhanced Weather Awareness System (eWAS) and Mission Watch over the summer of 2025. Across 21 days with weather-related capacity impacts between July and October 2025, DSNA used these tools to track and respond to fast-changing conditions across multiple airspace sectors. The results were clear. Flow managers were able to anticipate weather shifts more precisely, reducing delays by up to 65 percent – an estimated 60,000 to 105,000 minutes saved – while maintaining full safety. These operational gains also translate into financial benefits: handling 2,700 extra flights at an average en-route charge of €750 per flight equates to roughly €2.02 million in additional revenue for the same period. No incidents related to loss of traffic awareness were reported during the trial. (....)