BA among the worst for delays from UK airports, says report

BRITISH Airways flight delays were three times longer than easyjet last year, an investigation has found.

The national flag carrier was among the worst for delays from UK airports last year in terms of punctuality with longer waits only at Tui and Wizz Air.

Wizz Air’s UK departures were an average 14min, 24secs late, according to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

It operates short-haul from 10 UK airports including Belfast International, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Luton. Tui had the second worst punctuality, with an average delay of 13min, 18secs.

This was followed by BA (12min, 42secs) – including its subsidiary BA Cityflyer – Virgin Atlantic (12min) and Loganair (11min, 30secs). The two most used airlines by UK passengers, easyjet and Ryanair, were among the best in terms of punctuality. Easyjet had the second shortest average delay per flight of four minutes, 36secs, while Ryanair was third with six minutes, six seconds.

Only Ireland’s flag carrier Aer Lingus performed better, with a typical delay of just three minutes and 12secs.

The analysis took into account all scheduled and chartered departures from UK airports by airlines with more than 2,500 flights. Cancelled flights were not included.

The average delay was eight and a half minutes per flight. Analysis by PA conducted earlier this summer found that Birmingham was the UK’S worst airport for flight delays last year.

Punctuality across the aviation indus- try in 2021 was better than before the pandemic, due to the reduction in flights caused by travel restrictions.

But the situation has deteriorated this year, with staff shortages causing major problems for several airports and airlines, leading to tens of thousands of flights being cancelled. Guy Hobbs, editor of Which? Travel, said: “While these findings are worrying, the reality has actually been far worse for many travellers this summer. Holidaymakers have faced a barrage of disruption over the last few months, and these latest figures only serve to underline the need for urgent reform of the travel industry.

“The Government must drop plans to slash passenger compensation for delayed and cancelled domestic flights.”