Flights and airport any where in the UK experiencing the longest delays have been revealed. Aviation data analyzed by BBC News showed the worst is flying from Manchester to New York were delayed by nearly 90 minutes on average.
Passengers at London Gatwick face an average delay of almost 18 minutes per flight, the worst in the UK. The airport said it regretted any delays.
The BBC England data unit analysed Civil Aviation Authority data from January 2015 to March 2016.
The investigation showed:
- A Pakistan International Airlines flight from Manchester to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport was late on eight out of 10 recorded flights in 2015
- Turkmenistan Airlines had the highest number of delays with passengers waiting on average 70 minutes beyond their scheduled time
- The average delay among all airlines was about 15 minutes
- Gatwick’s punctuality record compared with an average of 13 minute delays at Heathrow, the only airport with a larger number of flights, and just under 11 minutes per flight from Newcastle Airport over the same period
A spokeswoman for Gatwick Airport said: “We regret any delays our passengers experience however several incidents beyond Gatwick’s control influenced the airport’s performance during this period, including numerous air traffic control strikes across European airspace, impacting the airport’s whole flight schedule including our long haul routes.
“Gatwick has more flights to Europe than any UK airport and can therefore be impacted disproportionately by events on the continent.”
Out of 129 Pakistan International Airlines flights from Manchester to New York between January 2015 and March 2016, delays totalled almost 190 hours, an average of 88 minutes per departure.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: “The Pakistan International Airlines service doesn’t impact on any other flights operating from Manchester.” The airline has been approached for a comment.
There are different rules for compensation for delays depending on the length of the flight and its destination.
To be covered by the law flights have to depart from or be flying to either a European Union country or Iceland, Norway or Switzerland.
For a short-haul flight, covering less than 1,500km (932 miles), passengers can claim €250 if the delay was more than three hours and it was the fault of the airline.
For medium-haul flights, covering between 1,500km and 3,500km (2,175 miles), the compensation is €400.
For long-haul flights, a delay of three to four hours means compensation of €300. Anyone delayed more than four hours can claim €600.
The next most delayed flight was the Turkmenistan Airlines service from Heathrow to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, with 19,302 minutes of delays out of 259 flights, equivalent to almost an hour and a quarter per flight.
Flights to Chambéry in France, typically popular for skiing holidays, also made up four of the 10 most delayed flights. However, operator Jet2.com, which ran three of those, stopped flying to Chambéry from UK airports in April 2016.
Analysis by consumer group Which? suggested almost a quarter (24%) of the 1.9 million flights to or from the UK between April 2015 and March 2016 were delayed by 15 minutes or more.
Alex Neill, Which? director of policy and campaigns, said: “Arriving at the airport to discover your flight has been delayed is incredibly frustrating, and something thousands of holidaymakers will encounter this summer.
“We know that tens of thousands of passengers on late running flights aren’t claiming the compensation they’re due and so we encourage people to claim what they’re rightly entitled to.”
A CAA spokesman said a record 257 million passengers used UK airports in 2015, surpassing the previous peak of 242 million reached in 2007.
“Arriving on time clearly matters to passengers and we expect airlines, airports and air traffic control to work together to improve punctuality,” he said.
Turkmenistan Airlines has been approached for comment.
Source: BBC
