Stansted airport ‘worst in Britain’ for flight delays in 2018

‘Adverse weather and air traffic control issues had a dramatic impact on airline on-time performance,’ said a spokesperson for the Essex airport

(Simon Calder)

Passengers at Ryanair’s biggest base, Stansted, endured the longest average flight delays of any airport in Britain last year.

The Press Association analysed Civil Aviation Authority delay data for 24 leading airports’ scheduled and chartered flights. It shows that the average flight from the Essex airport in 2019 was 25 minutes behind schedule.

Stansted is dominated by Ryanair, but also has significant operations by easyJet and Jet2.

Sharing second place in the table of tardiness are Luton and Birmingham, with 19 minutes as the average delay.

Gatwick suffered an average delay of 18 minutes.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “It's completely unacceptable for passengers to be regularly delayed by nearly half an hour.

“These delays aren’t just an inconvenience but can leave holidaymakers hundreds of pounds out of pocket because of missed connections, transfers and fines for picking up their hire car late.”

A spokesperson for Stansted said the summer of 2018 had been “particularly challenging”, and added: “Adverse weather and air traffic control issues had a dramatic impact on airline on-time performance.

“Ryanair committed to a multimillion-pound investment in additional resourcing and equipment to support its ground operation at London Stansted.

“This investment has already helped deliver significant service improvements to flight punctuality.”

The shortest average delay is at George Best Belfast City, at eight minutes, with Liverpool John Lennon airport doing almost as well with a 10-minute average delay.

Heathrow, the busiest in Britain, performed better than most with an average delay of 13 minutes.

Average flight delays in 2018, calculated by the Press Association from CAA data (in minutes)

1 Stansted: 25

2= Luton: 19

2= Birmingham: 19

4 Gatwick: 18

5= Manchester: 16

5= Jersey: 16

7= Edinburgh: 15

7= Belfast International: 15

7= Southend: 15

7= Glasgow: 15

11= Newcastle: 14

11= Durham Tees Valley: 14

11= Cardiff: 14

11= Southampton: 14

15= Aberdeen: 13

15= Isle of Man: 13

15= East Midlands: 13

15= Leeds Bradford: 13

15= Heathrow: 13

20= Bournemouth: 12

20= Exeter: 12

20= Doncaster Sheffield: 12

23 Liverpool: 10

24 Belfast City: 8