Airport delays on the rise throughout the UK

Nearly all major airports in the

United Kingdom appear to be struggling with a noticeable rise in delayed flights, according to the newest figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority. London

’s

City Airport found itself at the bottom of the punctuality list with a troubling 35% of flights departing after schedule. This is especially problematic seeing the

City Airport’s reputation as an ideal hub for businesspeople, who fly here from continental Europe and elsewhere in Britain, due to its relative proximity to

Central London.

Manchester

International Airport has also seen a rise in delays, with CAA claiming that the increase in tardiness stands at 10%, over figures gathered for the same period last year. On average, passengers flying from airports in the

UK now face a delay of approximately 25 minutes. Only Stansted and

Luton demonstrated some improvement over last year’s delays, in terms of regularly scheduled flights, while Gatwick did see a small decline in the number of charter and seasonal flights that were late this past spring. The only airport to truly impress CAA due to its punctuality was Leeds Bradford, where the average delay of approximately five minutes per flight was noticeably less than the national average. Leeds is a much smaller airport than any of the ones located in the

London area, and it also serves a limited number of domestic and European destinations.

What is most troubling to air travel analysts is that there were no major external factors that can be pointed to in order to explain the significant rise in delays, almost across the board. This suggests to some that the problems are caused by internal shortcomings and poor management within the industry, such as unrealistic schedules and too many flights departing airports during peak hours.