Flight punctuality down at UK airports

Scheduled and charter airlines at UK airports were less punctual in April to June 2007 than the previous year.

Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority show that only 68% of scheduled airlines operated on time (defined as early to 15 minutes late) at the 10 monitored UK airports, compared to 72% in the same quarter of 2006.

The proportion of scheduled flights operating on time increased by two percentage points at Stansted and Luton to 73% and 67% respectively.

The proportion of scheduled flights operating on time fell at all other airports.

London City performed worst with an on-time performance down seven percentage points to 65%.

The average scheduled airline delay in the second quarter rose from 15 minutes in 2006 to 17 minutes in 2007.

Meanwhile, the proportion of on-time charter flights fell by two percentage points to 67%.

At Gatwick and Luton, punctuality increased by three percentage points to 68% and 70% respectively, while on-time performance was maintained at Birmingham.

At all other monitored airports performed worse, with Manchester experiencing the biggest on-time performance fall of nine percentage points.

The average delay across all charter flights rose slightly from 24 minutes in the second quarter of 2006 to 25 minutes in the second quarter of 2007.

At Gatwick the average delay fell by four minutes, while at Glasgow, it fell by two minutes. At all other airports, average delay increased.

Among the 75 scheduled and charter destinations with the most passengers, the scheduled routes to New York JFK, Dubai, New York Newark, Los Angeles, Rome Fiumicino and Istanbul had on-time performances of less than 55%.

Scheduled services to New York JFK and Newark, Toronto and Budapest, as well as the charter route to Dalaman, all had average delays of 25 minutes or more.

Dalaman, Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife Sur Reina were the three charter destinations among the top 75.

Of these, Tenerife had the highest on-time performance of 72% and the lowest average delay of 19 minutes.

New York JFK had both the lowest on time performance and the longest average delay amongst the top 75 scheduled and charter destinations, with an on-time performance of 46% and an average delay of 36 minutes.

Leeds Bradford had both the highest on-time performance (89%) and shortest average delay (five minutes) among the top 75 destinations.

By Bev Fearis