Stansted Airport worst in UK for flight delays
Passengers flying from Stansted suffered longer delays than those using any other UK airport last year.
An analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data revealed that passengers at the Essex airport were kept waiting an average of 25 minutes.
The next worst airports for delays were Luton and Birmingham, which both had an average delay of 19 minutes, followed by Gatwick with 18.
Belfast City had the best performance, with an average delay of only eight minutes.
The average delay across UK airports was 16 minutes, according to the Press Association analysis of the CAA data.
Stansted blamed ‘adverse weather and air traffic control issues’ for its below average performance.
The airport is the fourth busiest in the UK and its biggest user is Ryanair.
Last year, Ryanair complained to both the European Commission and the CAA about air traffic control delays at Stansted, accusing the UK’s air traffic control provider NATS of unfairly discriminating against both the airline and the airport in favour of airlines based at Heathrow and Gatwick.
Referring to the average delay in 2018, a spokesman for Stansted blamed ‘a particularly challenging summer last year’, adding that ‘adverse weather and air traffic control issues had a dramatic impact on airline on-time performance’.
However, he said a multimillion-pound investment by Ryanair to support its ground operation at the airport had ‘significantly’ helped improve punctuality.
Scheduled and chartered flights from 24 major UK airports were ranked in the CAA investigation, but cancelled flights were not included.
Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said: "It’s completely unacceptable for passengers to be regularly delayed by nearly half an hour.
"These delays aren’t just an inconvenience but can leave holidaymakers hundreds of pounds out of pocket because of missed connections, transfers and fines for picking up their hire car late.
"Airlines should stop passing the buck and make it easier for their passengers by finally introducing automatic compensation."
Airport ranked from worst to best for delays:
1 Stansted: 25 minutes
2 Luton: 19 minutes
2 Birmingham: 19 minutes
4 Gatwick: 18 minutes
5 Manchester: 16 minutes
5 Jersey: 16 minutes
7 Edinburgh: 15 minutes
7 Belfast International: 15 minutes
7 Southend: 15 minutes
7 Glasgow: 15 minutes
11 Newcastle: 14 minutes
11 Durham Tees Valley: 14 minutes
11 Cardiff: 14 minutes
11 Southampton: 14 minutes
15 Aberdeen: 13 minutes
15 Isle of Man: 13 minutes
15 East Midlands: 13 minutes
15 Leeds Bradford: 13 minutes
15 Heathrow: 13 minutes
20 Bournemouth: 12 minutes
20 Exeter: 12 minutes
20 Doncaster Sheffield: 12 minutes
23 Liverpool (John Lennon): 10 minutes
24 Belfast City (George Best): 8 minutes
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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