Few things are more frustrating than a delayed flight. You’ve done everything right – packed your hold luggage to a perfect weight, remembered all the right documents, breezed through security without a hitch and still have plenty of time for a leisurely browse through duty free – only to arrive at the gate and be told that your flight is held up for an unknown amount of time. Ugh.
Last month, the UK’s worst airports for flight delays were unveiled. Now it’s the airlines’ turn to be named and shamed. The PA news agency checked out data from the Civil Aviation Authority to find out which airline has the most delays from the UK. The data covers more than 2,500 scheduled and chartered flights that took off from UK airports last year. It didn’t take cancelled flights into account.
With an average delay time of 45 minutes and 48 seconds, AirIndia was named the worst airline for late take offs from the UK. The airline operates from Birmingham, Gatwick and Heathrow taking travellers to multiple Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Its most delayed route in 2024 was Gatwick to Bengaluru, which had an average hold-up of one hour and 23 minutes.
Rory Boland, travel editor at Which?, called Air India's track record ‘completely unacceptable’. The airline said that the delays were primarily down to factors outside of its control.
Guernsey airline Auringny Air Services was the next worst air carrier, with late flights taking off an average of 31 minutes and 12 seconds behind schedule. Almost as bad was Turkish airline SunExpress with an average delay time of 29 minutes and 36 seconds.
At the other end of the scale, the most punctual airline departing the UK in 2024 was Ireland’s Emerald Airlines. It had an average delay time of just 10 minutes and 30 seconds.
The good news is that the average delay times across all carriers was actually down on the previous year – 18 minutes and 18 seconds in 2024 compared to 20 minutes and 42 seconds in 2023.
The worst airlines for flight delays from the UK in 2024
- Air India (45 minutes and 48 seconds)
- Aurigny Air Services (31 minutes and 12 seconds)
- SunExpress (29 minutes and 36 seconds)
- Air Portugal (25 minutes and 12 seconds)
- American Airlines (25 minutes)
- Tui (24 minutes and 18 seconds)
- Wizz Air (23 minutes and 48 seconds)
- Swiss Airlines (21 minutes and 48 seconds)
- Emirates (21 minutes and 36 seconds)
- Vueling (21 minutes and 30 seconds)
ICYMI: EasyJet is reopening its base at the UK airport named the best in the world.
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