Why are we waiting? Huge rise in flight delays

AIRLINE punctuality has plummeted in the past five years, inflicting misery on millions.

And with airport staff, pilots and other key workers taking industrial action this summer, families continue to suffer the fallout of a breakdown in relations between travel industry leaders and the unions. A Which? analysis of almost 10 million flights from 2014 to 2018 found that eight of the UK’s ten busiest carriers have seen an increase in delays of more than an hour – with an estimated 17 million passengers affected last year alone.

The analysis found delays of an hour or more with Ryanair have more than doubled in the past five years, from 3 per cent in 2014, to nearly 8 per cent.

Thomas Cook, with 11.5 per cent, had the highest figure, with easyJet on just under 9 per cent and Wizz Air at 6 per cent.

Among airports, Stansted was the worst for delays by some margin – with more than twice as many departing flights delayed by an hour than at Heathrow.

It means passengers at Stansted now have a one in ten chance of being delayed by an hour or more.

Glasgow Airport had the highest number of delayed flights in Scotland last year – 6.1 per cent of journeys were postponed by an hour or longer, with the average delay time being 14.6 minutes.

Scotland’s busiest airport, Edinburgh, featured just behind Glasgow, with 6 per cent of flights delayed by an hour or more last year and an average delay of 15.4 minutes.

Which? Travel’s Naomi Leach said: ‘It is unacceptable for passengers to be regularly inconvenienced with delays that can leave them hundreds of pounds out of pocket.’

‘Unacceptable for passengers’