UK flights’ punctuality falls in the second quarter of 2012

Data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) released today shows that during April to June 2012, the overall on-time performance (defined as the proportion of flights arriving or departing early or up to 15 minutes late) of scheduled flights at the ten UK airports monitored was 78%, a fall of four percentage points compared with the second quarter of 2011. The average delay across all scheduled flights monitored was 12 minutes, one more minute than in the second quarter of 2011. This is a fall from a relatively good performance in the second quarter of 2011 compared with previous years.

In the second quarter of this year, the punctuality of 350,000 scheduled and 20,000 charter passenger flights was measured at ten airports, which represents a 0.8% increase in scheduled flights and a 12.8% decrease in charter flights, compared with the second quarter of 2011.

Commenting on the figures, Iain Osborne, CAA Group Director for Regulatory Policy, said: “Passengers are entitled to expect a good value flight that gets them to their destination on time. These figures show that the majority of passengers using UK airports are receiving that level of service. However, the drop in performance for scheduled flights is a warning sign – more can be done, and we urge airports, airlines and air traffic control to work together to reverse this trend, reduce delays and ensure even more passengers reach their destination on time.”

Scheduled Flights

On-time performance (defined as early to 15 minutes late) for scheduled flights at London airports fell by four percentage points to 77% and the average delay increased by two minutes to 13 minutes, between the second quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2012. Over the same period, Heathrow had the largest fall in on-time performance (six percentage points to 73%), whereas Luton improved its on-time performance by one percentage point. Gatwick’s on-time performance fell by three percentage points, Stansted’s fell by two percentage points and London City by one percentage point.

At other airports monitored, the on-time performance for scheduled flights fell overall by two percentage points and the average delay increased by one minute in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011. On-time performance fell by three percentage points at Manchester and Birmingham, by two percentage points at Glasgow, by one percentage point at Edinburgh but it increased by one percentage point at Newcastle.

Charter Flights

Contrastingly, punctuality of charter improved in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the same period of 2011. The proportion of on-time charter flights increased by two percentage points to 77% and the average delay across all charter flights monitored in the second quarter of 2012 was 17 minutes, a fall of three minutes compared with the second quarter of 2011.

Destinations with most passengers

Among the 75 scheduled international destinations with the most passengers in the second quarter of 2012, flights to and from Toronto recorded the worst on-time performance of 52% and the highest average delay of 28 minutes. Flights to and from Rotterdam achieved the best punctuality with an on-time performance of 94% and the lowest average delay of 3 minutes.