BA’S summer flight delays worse than the majority of low-cost airlines

Airways has more summer flight delays than most of the British Isles’s low-cost airlines, data shows.

The figures, released by the Civil Aviation Authority, show the national carrier suffers an average delay per flight of around 17 minutes – longer than Ryanair, Jet2, Flybe and Monarch.

The longest average delay was suffered by easyjet passengers, an average of 24 minutes late during the summers of 2015 and 2016.

Aer Lingus had the best record, with its flights leaving or arriving an average of 12 minutes behind schedule.

A spokesman for easyjet said: “We operate the largest number of flights of any UK airline, flying over 78million passengers per year. In 2017, we will operate 33 per cent more flights than in 2011 with less than 0.8 per cent delayed by more than three hours.”

Gatwick Airport had the longest average delay per outbound flight, with an average wait of 27 minutes. A spokesman said: “Gatwick has been disproportionately affected by repeated strike action by French, Greek, Spanish and Italian air traffic controllers and airport employees, prolonged bad weather, and heavily congested airspace above parts of Europe and London.”

A BA spokesman said: “Across our network, we operate upwards of 300,000 flights a year, carrying more than 44 million customers and the vast majority of these services run on time.

“Last year was our busiest ever and a number of issues affected our punctuality, including a record number of flights in European airspace, many days of strikes by French and Italian air traffic controllers and difficult weather conditions – all beyond our control.”