Flight delays worsen at UK airports
Flight punctuality dropped at 10 UK airports in the last quarter, according to figures released today by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Overall, the on-time performance of scheduled flights was 72% between July and September, compared to 80% over the same months in 2009.
The average delay of all scheduled flights increased by four minutes to 16 minutes.
Gatwick and Luton airports suffered the largest drop in on-time performance and experienced an increase in average delay.
Gatwick’s on-time performance fell from 74% to 62% and Luton’s fell from 77% to 67%.
Average delays increased by nine minutes at Gatwick and by seven minutes at Luton.
Heathrow Airport’s on-time performance fell from 80% to 71% and Stansted Airport’s fell from 78% to 72%.
London City Airport achieved an on-time performance of 88%, which, although being the highest on-time performance amongst the 10 airports monitored, had dropped from 92% in 2009.
The proportion of on-time charter flights at the 10 UK airports fell from 74% to 63%.
The average delay across all charter flights was 30 minutes, compared to 20 minutes in 2009.
On-time performance of charter flights at the London airports fell from 73% to 64%, while at the five regional airports monitored, the on-time performance fell from 74% to 62%.
Average delay of charter flights at the London airports increased by six minutes to 28 minutes, whereas at the five regional airports monitored, average delay increased by 14 minutes to 32 minutes.
The CAA monitored Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, London City, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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