Revealed: the UK airports with the longest flight delays in 2022

Over the past year or two, we’ve all learned to factor in a bit of chaos when making travel plans. With the combination of train, airport and passport-worker strikes, a smooth journey within (or to and from) the UK is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence. 

Now the PA news agency has revealed the least reliable airports in 2022, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority. And the worst culprit? Birmingham Airport, with passengers having to wait half an hour beyond their planned departure time.

With 10.3 million passengers travelling through it last year, the West Midlands travel hub is the seventh busiest in the country. It also ranked the worst last year, but since then waiting time has apparently doubled.

Joint second-worst for delays was Manchester Airport, alongside the recently closed Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Both had an average waiting time of 29 minutes, compared with around ten minutes in 2021. 

Across all airports, the average wait time was 23 minutes, and on average, passengers were waiting four or five times longer in 2022 than the previous year. Cancelled flights were not included.

And if you’re still umming and ahhing over when to book your trip abroad, it might be useful to know that last year, May and June were the worst months for flight reliability. This was largely due to the sector struggling to recruit and train enough staff to keep up with surge in demand for holidays. 

At the other end of the spectrum, East Midlands airport fared the best, with an average delay time of just 13 minutes. 

Here’s the full list of the worst UK airports for flight delays in 2022:

1. Birmingham (30 minutes)
2. Manchester (29 minutes)
3. Doncaster Sheffield (29 minutes)
4. Luton (28 minutes)
5. Gatwick (27 minutes)
6. Bristol (26 minutes)
7. Cardiff (24 minutes)
8. Edinburgh (24 minutes)
9. Heathrow (22 minutes)
10. Newcastle (21 minutes)
11. Isle of Man (21 minutes)
12. Aberdeen (21 minutes)
13. Leeds Bradford (20 minutes)
14. Southend (20 minutes)
15. Glasgow (19 minutes)
16. Stansted (19 minutes)
17. Southampton (19 minutes)
18. Bournemouth (19 minutes)
19. London City (17 minutes)
20. Jersey (17 minutes)
21. Belfast International (16 minutes)
22. Liverpool John Lennon (15 minutes)
23. Belfast City (15 minutes)
24. Exeter (14 minutes)
25. Teesside (14 minutes)
26. East Midlands (13 minutes)

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