Four UK airports have been named among the worst in Europe for flight delays, according to new research by AirAdvisor. Manchester Airport topped the list as the worst, with 6.16 percent of flights delayed by 60 minutes or more and an average delay of 116.7 minutes. The most impacted routes from Manchester were to Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Dublin.
London Gatwick was ranked sixth worst, with a 5.24 percent rate of hour-long delays and an average delay of 111.88 minutes. The most affected routes were to Barcelona, Malaga, and Lisbon. London Stansted and Birmingham Airport tied for tenth place, with Stansted seeing 5.5 percent of flights delayed by an hour or more (average 106.24 minutes) and Birmingham 5.26 percent (average 108.01 minutes).
Airport spokespeople defended their records, attributing delays to factors outside their control such as air traffic control strikes, adverse weather, and airspace restrictions. A Manchester Airport spokesperson said the analysis was 'misleading' as it ignored context like industrial action and weather, while a Birmingham spokesperson noted that over half of flights departed on time. Stansted also emphasised that the data looked at a small sample of airports and that delays were often driven by wider factors.
