by In 2023 thousands of flights from the UK were canceled or delayed. Using data provided by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and aviation data analytics firm OAG, the Telegraph can identify the airports, airlines and routes with the best and worst records for cancellations and to disclose delays.
Enter your flight details above to find out the chances of cancellation and the average delay in minutes to your journey, as well as information on how specific airlines performed on each route.
The best and worst airports for delays
Gatwick was the UK’s worst international airport for delays in 2023, with only 54.7 per cent of flights departing or arriving on time (up to 15 minutes after the scheduled departure time), according to The Telegraph’s analysis of CAA data. Bristol (61.6 per cent punctuality), Manchester (61.7 per cent), Edinburgh (61.9 per cent) and Luton (63.2 per cent) are the rest of the five lowest airports for delays.
The best airport for delays was Aberdeen, with 83.5 per cent of flights departing or arriving on time. Smaller airports were generally more punctual than larger ones – Belfast City (75.2 per cent), Exeter (74.8 per cent), Teesside (73.5 per cent) and Liverpool (73.5 per cent) were also in the top five.
In terms of average delay length, London City and Belfast City both averaged 13 minutes – the best of any airport in the country. Heathrow had an average delay of 20 minutes, Manchester 22 minutes, and Gatwick was at the bottom of this category with an average delay of 27 minutes – beaten only by the Isle of Man, which had an average delay of 29 minutes in 2023.
OAG’s John Grant said: “Delivering on-time performance is critical to the entire aviation industry and every day brings a new set of challenges, some within the control of the airline or airport, and others – such as air traffic control. , industrial disputes in Europe and even the weather – which is not.”
The best and worst airports for cancellations
According to CAA data, the UK’s worst airport for cancellations in 2023 was the Isle of Man (5.46 per cent), around one in every 18 flights. The rest of the bottom five are Aberdeen (4.6 per cent), London City (4.21 per cent), Exeter (3.81 per cent) and Belfast City (3.73 per cent).
Bournemouth was the best airport for cancellations, with a cancellation rate of just 0.22 per cent, or one in every 454 flights. East Midlands (0.44 per cent), Stansted (0.65 per cent), Luton (1.06 per cent) and Belfast International (1.07 per cent) all also did well.
Of the other major airports, Manchester had the best cancellation rate of 1.27 per cent, while Gatwick (1.88 per cent) and Heathrow (2.1 per cent) had similar records.
The best and worst airlines for delays
Wizz Air was the airline with the longest average departure delay in 2023, at 32.4 minutes, according to CAA data. Egypt Air, BH Air and Turkish Corendon Airlines all booked an average of half an hour or longer.
On the other end of the spectrum, Norwegian Airline Wideroe was the best airline for delays, with an average delay of 7.8 minutes. JetBlue, Malaysian Airlines and Japan Airlines also performed well on their departures from the UK.
Looking at the main airlines used by British holidaymakers, Tui Airways had an average delay of 27.4 minutes, British Airways 22.3 minutes, easyJet 21.5 minutes and Ryanair 19.8 minutes.
The best and worst airlines for cancellations
The worst airline for cancellations was the British domestic operator Eastern Airways, which had a cancellation rate of 9 per cent of departures from the UK. Italian flag carrier ITA Airways was second worst, with a cancellation rate of 7.5 per cent, followed by Wideroe (4.9 per cent), KLM (4.5 per cent) and Aurigny (4.2 per cent). the lowest five. .
Among the airlines with the best cancellation rates are Japan Airlines, Corendon and All Nippon Airways (ANA), which each had a 100 percent track record for operating their flights. Singapore (down 0.05 per cent), KLM Cityhopper (0.12 per cent), Tui Airways (0.14 per cent) and BA Euroflyer (0.15 per cent) also performed well in this category.
Of the major airlines, Jet2.com performed best with only 149 of its 50,360 flights canceled (0.3 per cent). Ryanair’s record was equally impressive, with only 520 of its 151,313 departures (0.34 per cent) cancelled. Wizz Air had a cancellation rate of 1 percent, easyJet’s rate was 1.5 percent, and British Airways had just shy of 3 percent of all scheduled flights cancelled.
The best and worst times of the year to travel
In terms of flight delays and cancellations, June is the worst summer month to fly according to OAG flight data for 2023.
Of the 20 worst days for cancellations in 2023, five of those fell in June. It was also the summer month with the highest average percentage of cancellations, with 2.2 per cent of all UK events cancelled. August came second, at 2.1 per cent, although that figure is skewed by the air traffic control crisis of Bank Holiday 2023. Discounting that event, the average cancellation rate for August was 1.2 per cent. The average cancellation rate was the lowest in May, at 1.3 per cent of all flights booked.
June was also the worst summer month for delays, with 82 per cent of flights leaving on time. August was second worst, at 85.2 per cent, followed by May (86.5), July (86.7) and September (86.6). December was by far the worst month of the year for delays, when almost one in four flights (24 per cent) did not make it on time last year.
The most problematic ways
The route with the highest percentage of cancellations (according to CAA data) was Gatwick to Catania, operated by British Airways. Of the 23 scheduled flights in 2023, 14 (60.8 percent) were cancelled. Of the international routes with more than 100 flights, Aberdeen to Amsterdam with KLM saw a cancellation rate of 19.4 per cent. Gatwick to New York JFK with British Airways had a 15.9 percent cancellation rate, and London City to Milan with ITA had a 15.8 percent cancellation rate.
Of the services with more than 100 flights in 2023, Gatwick to Paphos (Cyprus) operated by Tui Airways had the longest average delay of 99 minutes. Heathrow to Islamabad with British Airways had an average delay of 76 minutes, while 935 flights from Luton to Tirana with Wizz Air also had an average delay of 76 minutes.
This story was first published in July 2023 and has been revised and updated.
