Gatwick Named Worst UK Airport for Delays, London City Airport No.1

If you are a frequent air traveller, you may have noticed that there has been a dip in the number of flights sticking to their scheduled arrivals and departures, throughout the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) recently released its findings on some of the best and worst airports in the nation for timely arrivals and departures. Those travelling frequently from Gatwick and Heathrow airports won't be happy with CAA's statistics.

The authority ranked ten UK airports based on the punctuality of their flights. The airports that were tested for the timeliness of their flights were Gatwick, London City, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. While Gatwick was named as the airport reporting most delayed airlines in UK, Heathrow and Lutan (though, with a fall of five percent, Luton saw the sharpest dip in its on-time flight numbers) tied at the next spot. London City airport emerged on the top spot as the one with least incidences of european flight delays.

Numbers to prove

Overall, the number of charter flights which operated as per their expected schedule fell to 73 percent in 2014 compared to 77 percent, as recorded in 2013. The number of scheduled flights sticking to their time table also fell down one percentage point compared to the previous year, standing at 79 percent for 2014. On an average, chartered flights in the UK faced a delay of 18 minutes in 2014, which is one percent more than the duration of delay in 2013. As far as the scheduled flights were concerned, the number remained consistent at 12 minutes, as that of 2013.

London City airport emerged as the forerunner as far as timely flights are concerned. About 88 percent of the flights departing from the airport or arriving there were on time. In cases of UK airport delays at London City, passengers had to wait for about seven minutes for their flights to arrive or depart – making it a favourite among business travellers as well as those travelling for leisure.

Gatwick airport's recovery plan

As per CAA's statistics, Gatwick was at the lowest spot on the table with only 74 percent of its flights arriving and departing on time. Those flying from the Heathrow airport face a flight delay, UK of about 15 minutes on an average at the airport. With over 230,000 scheduled flights every year, Gatwick is the second most busiest airport of the nation. Coming to its defence on being named as the worst airport for delayed airlines in the UK, the airport authorities said that they expect better performance from their side in 2015 as they have planned some efficiency improvements to be done at the airport, in order to combat the issue of flight delays. The officials also reminded that the airport was accredited with Airport Collaborative Decision Making’ (ACDM) in December. ACDM is the process that helps both third parties and Gatwick airport to share information that air-planes can use to take off quickly and to turn efficiently

Stephen Godden, am the author of this article for Flight Delay Refunds and Blueway Limited is the main resources of Flight Delay Refunds company provide a full service of delayed or cancelled flights.