Heathrow clocks up worst on-time performance
Tuesday, 25 September 2012 10:31 AM
UK airport delays on the increase.
Heathrow has recorded the worst flight punctuality performance of ten UK airports, new figures show.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority, only 73 per cent of flights from Heathrow left on time between April and June of this year, meaning one in every four journeys was delayed.
This is a drop in performance of six per cent on the airport’s report card - the biggest year-on-year decline recorded in all airports surveyed.
However, the CAA’s findings indicated that passengers are experiencing more delays across all ten main UK airports and those delays are getting longer.
The average delay is between one and 12 minutes, while only 78 per cent of flights across the ten airports leave at their scheduled time.
The news is particularly bad for passengers heading to Toronto for whom the likelihood of a delay almost doubles.
Only 52 per cent of flights to the Canadian city leave on time and passengers have to wait an average of 28 extra minutes when a flight is delayed.
For those who enjoy punctuality, Rotterdam is the destination to choose.
A whopping 94 per cent of flights to Rotterdam leave at the scheduled time and when there are delays the average is just three additional minutes.
It is not all bad news for UK airports with punctuality increasing for chartered flights.
The number of on-time chartered flights increased by two per cent and the average waiting time was sliced by three minutes.
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