Bad weather sets airport on-time performances back

UK flight punctuality suffered in the first quarter of 2010 thanks largely to bad weather in January, new CAA figures reveal.

At the ten airports monitored by the organisation, on-time performance was achieved by 74% of flights in January to March, 7% lower than the same period last year. On time performance is measured as being early, on time or up to 15 minutes late.

Flight numbers at the airports dropped by 7% over the same compared period.

The CAA says that in the first quarter there were 304,000 scheduled flights and 18,000 charter flights at the ten airports, which is a 6% and 11% fall respectively on last year.

Heathrow’s scheduled flights’ on-time performance fell by 6% and average delay increased by four minutes to 16 minutes.

Gatwick and Luton’s performance fell by 11% and Stansted’s by 5%.

London City achieved on-time performance for three quarters of its flights, 9% lower than last year.

Across the airports, the proportion of on-time charter flights fell by 6% down to 62%. The average delay was 35 minutes, 12 minutes more than last year.

Passengers flying to and from the Isle of Man were the least likely to experience delay. Among the 75 scheduled and charter destinations with the most passengers in the first quarter, the island had the highest on-time performance with 87% and the shortest average delay of eight minutes.

Istanbul was at the other end of the chart, with the worst on- time performance of just 43%.

Flights to and from Toronto had the highest average delay of 39 minutes.

by Dinah Hatch