Not so wizz! Worst airline for taking off late is Wizz Air
THE worst airline for punctuality was yesterday named as Wizz Air – with planes taking off an average of 23 minutes late.
the Hungarian firm blamed factors including bad winter weather as it came bottom in a table of the 44 busiest airlines operating from the UK in 2017.
Norwegian Air Shuttle (21.7 minutes) was the second worst followed by Vueling Airlines and thomas Cook Airlines ( both 21.1 minutes). Scandinavian Airlines was the most punctual, with jets typically taking off seven minutes behind schedule. Aer Lingus (nine minutes) was the second best followed by Air France (ten minutes), according to an analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data.
the average delay across all flights was 15 minutes.
the table features the 44 airlines with at least 2,000 scheduled flights from the UK last year.
Average delay figures take into account every flight that operated, including those that were on time. Cancelled services were excluded.
BA was ninth best in the punctuality table with delays averaging 11 minutes and 30 seconds. Virgin Atlantic was 18th (13.3 minutes), Ryanair 24th (15.6 minutes) and EasyJet 33rd (18.2 minutes).
A Wizz Air spokesman said: ‘A number of issues specific to the UK, including airport infrastructure, airspace congestion and slot restrictions contribute to a significantly worse on-time performance of our UK routes compared to the rest of our network.’
She claimed disruption was also caused by ‘particularly severe winter weather’ last year and added that the airline is taking measures to improve punctuality, such as basing eight aircraft in the UK to reduce exposure to inbound delays. Norwegian Air Shuttle’s UK flights mainly consist of shorthaul services from Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Its average delay of 21.7 minutes does not take into account most of Norwegian’s long-haul flights from the UK, which are operated by a British subsidiary. A Norwegian spokesman said frequent air traffic control strikes across Europe and adverse weather ‘invariably impact punctuality’ and are beyond the control of airlines.
He added: ‘We do everything possible to ensure that flights operate to allow passengers to reach their destination as soon as possible. Norwegian is committed to keep improving punctuality.’
the CAA said punctuality ‘clearly matters to airline passengers’ and it publishes the performance of carriers to allow people to ‘make informed choices about which airline to fly with’. Passengers on delayed flights from UK airports are entitled to assistance and compensation depending on the cause and length of disruption.
When flights are delayed for more than two hours, airlines have to provide free access to phone calls or emails, meals and refreshments, as well as hotel accommodation if an overnight stay is required.
Passengers can also claim compensation when flights are delayed over three hours unless there are ‘extraordinary circumstances’ such as severe weather or a security alert. Payouts range from £223 to £535.
Rory Boland, of Which? travel, advised delayed passengers to ‘make sure you make a claim for the compensation that you are entitled to’. He added: ‘Airlines now need to do the right thing and introduce automatic compensation. Passengers should not have to jump through hoops to claim back the money they are owed.’
Airline association BAR UK said delays were ‘extremely costly’ to companies, which were working to minimise disruption.