Air traffic management agency Eurocontrol announced that business aircraft activity in Europe was down by 20 percent in January this year compared with January 2008. Spain and the UK, where traffic dropped by 27 and 23 percent, respectively, were the most seriously affected among the EU’s 27 member nations. A number of business aviation airports across the region confirmed to AIN that they have seen reduced operations since last October. Eurocontrol data comparing each month with the same month a year ago shows that business aviation traffic in the EU was down by 16 percent in December and by 17 percent in November. Over the 12 months of 2008 there was a 3-percent decline. “The UK is one of the worst-hit member states at almost eight percent down on the year,” European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) president Brian Humphries told AIN. EBAA members are reporting activity levels down by 15 percent for the last three months and they do not expect much improvement until the autumn, anticipating a fall of around 10 percent for all of 2009 over 2008’s figures.