Better late than never
15 / 08 / 2016
More of interest to travellers than cargo shippers maybe, but recent probing by the BBC has revealed that Gatwick, not oft-maligned Heathrow was the worst airport in the UK for flight delays.
On average, Gatwick flights were delayed 18 minutes per flight between January 2015 and March 2016, whereas for Heathrow the average delay was only 13 minutes.
In fact, Luton, Manchester and Glasgow all had worse delay records than Heathrow, according to the data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
A Gatwick spokesperson pointed out that there had been numerous air traffic control strikes across European airspace in this period and as Gatwick has more flights to Europe than any UK airport, it could have been disproportionately affected by events on the continent.
The prize – if that is the right word – for the UK’s most unpunctual service was Pakistan International Airlines’ flight from Manchester to New York JFK, late eight times out of ten in 2015 and racking up a whopping 88 minutes average delay.
Turkmenistan Airlines had the highest number of delays, with an average 70 minutes lateness. Other ‘star performers’ in this respect included Air Algerie, Tunisair, Biman Bangladesh and Kuwait Airways.
