Thomson Airways was the most punctual charter airline last summer for the fourth consecutive year, according to the website www.flightontime.com which publishes airline punctuality data.
However, Thomas Cook Airlines made the greatest improvement in its performance, reducing the percentage of flights delayed by more than 15 minutes from 38% in summer 2010 down to just under 25%.
The website measures the average number of delay minutes for each airlines’ flights from eight UK airports from April to October.
According to flightontime, 77% of Thomson’s flights were on time last summer, up from 70% the previous year. Its average delay was just over 17 minutes. Thomas Cook passengers’ suffered an average delay of almost 20 minutes while Monarch, the worst performing airline, had an average delay of almost 22 minutes and almost 30% of its flights were delayed by more than 15 minutes.
Flightontime said the average charter flight operated just over 20 minutes behind schedule last summer, which was "among the better" overall charter punctuality averages seen during the last decade.
By Linsey McNeill
