Ten worst airlines for delays in the UK

Passengers jetting off from the UK with Wizz Air face average delays of almost 23 minutes, a new study has found.

The Hungarian budget carrier is the least punctual of the main airlines departing from Britain’s airports, according to an analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data by the Press Association (PA). Norwegian Air Shuttle had the second-worst performance, with average delays of almost 22 minutes.

At the other end of the scale, Scandinavian Airlines was the most punctual, with passengers typically waiting just seven minutes.

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The ranking covers 44 airlines that had at least 2,000 scheduled flights from UK airports last year, reports The Guardian. Average delay figures took into account “every flight that operated, including those that were on time”, but cancelled services were not included, the newspaper says.

Following the publication of the findings, a spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “A number of issues specific to the UK, including airport infrastructure, airspace congestion and slot restrictions contribute to a significantly worse on-time performance of our UK routes compared to the rest of our network.”

Meanwhile, a Norwegian Air Shuttle spokesperson said that the Scandinavian firm does “everything possible” to ensure passengers reach their destination as soon as possible. “Norwegian is committed to keep improving punctuality, and where factors are within our direct control we have introduced new measures to continue delivering a smooth, efficient experience for our passengers,” the spokesperson added.

The CAA said that reliability “clearly matters to airline passengers” and that it distributed information about airlines to enable travellers to “make informed choices about which airline to fly with”.

Here are the ten least punctual airlines from UK airports:

Wizz Air, 22.9mins

Norwegian Air Shuttle, 21.7mins

Vueling Airlines, 21.1mins

Thomas Cook Airlines, 21.1mins

BMI Regional, 21mins

Aurigny Air Services, 20.1mins

Norwegian Air International, 19.3mins

Eurowings, 19.2mins

Turkish Airlines, 19.2mins

Air Portugal, 19.1mins