UK airport punctuality down from 2013

It’s the bane of every holidaymaker's life, arriving on time at the airport, only to find out your flight has been delayed.

Whether it's 20 minutes or two hours, this experience is always a source of annoyance for eager travellers.

And it seems as though this unwelcome addition to travel actually got a little worse over the course of the second quarter of 2014, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Indeed, statistics from the organisation have revealed that flight punctuality in the UK fell in Q2 this year, when compared to the same period in 2013.

A drop of three percentage points was recorded, taking the on-time performance of scheduled flights down to 78 per cent.

London’s five largest airports, Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, London City and Luton, all saw three per cent drops, whereas the other five UK airports examined also recorded a decrease in punctuality of the same margin.

Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham all saw the amount of on-time flights fall from 84 per cent to 81 per cent.

Although the drops do seem small, any delay can seriously affect the travel plans of holidaymakers, especially if connecting flights are a factor.

As a general industry rule, a flight that is ‘on-time’ is one that either arrives early or up to 15 minutes later than scheduled. Each of the ten monitored airports witnessed an individual drop in flight punctuality, with Luton showing the biggest decline of eight per cent.

Overall, the on-time punctuality for chartered flights was 72 per cent, which, when compared to the same period in 2013, marked a five per cent fall in performance.

The CAA actually provides a consumer guide to punctuality statistics on its website so that consumers can check the punctuality of flights on a chosen route.

This can be used to track the historic performance of the route, giving holidaymakers further information for when they come to book their travel arrangements.

The UK’s top ten airports are covered by the data.