Quarter of Scots flights delayed

A quarter of flights to and from Scotland’s three busiest airports have been delayed in the past year, according to new analysis.

The Which? study found passengers using Edinburgh Airport were most likely to face delays, with 27% of more than 110,000 flights delayed by at least 15 minutes in 2016-17, up from 22% a year ago.

Glasgow – the country’s second busiest airport – ranked second for delays, with 25% of nearly 85,000 flights taking off or landing at least 15 minutes later than scheduled, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

Aberdeen International Airport ranked third, with 22% of more than 45,000 flights recorded as late.

Both Glasgow and Aberdeen saw the number of delays increase, rising two and three percentage points respectively.

Overall, 25% of more than 240,000 flights arriving or departing at Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen were delayed by at least 15 minutes in 2016-17, up from 22% in 2015-16.

The airports said delays can be caused by a variety of reasons, some of which are beyond their control – such as the weather or strikes.

Which? also found more than 1,200 flights to or from Scotland’s three busiest airports were delayed by at least three hours in the past year, meaning thousands of passengers could be entitled to compensation.

Alex Neill of Which? said: “We think it’s time for airlines to start automatically compensating eligible passengers, but until they step up and do this, we urge people to check what they are entitled to.”

“It’s time for airlines to automatically compensate passengers”