Data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) released today shows that during July to September 2011, 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 79%, seven percentage points higher than in the third quarter of 2010. The average delay across all scheduled flights monitored was 12 minutes, a fall of four minutes compared with the same period in 2010.

In the third quarter of this year, there were 364,000 scheduled flights and 32,000 charter flights at the ten airports monitored, which represents a 0.4% increase in scheduled flights and a 4.1% decrease in charter flights, compared with the third quarter of 2010.

Commenting on the figures, Iain Osborne, CAA Group Director for Regulatory Policy, said: “After the poor performances airlines showed on punctuality during summer 2010, we welcome the evident improvements this year. However, there is always potential for improvement. We expect that punctuality information like this will help consumers to compare airlines and airports, and so improve performance further by harnessing market forces.”

Scheduled Flights
On-time performance (defined as early to 15 minutes late) for scheduled flights at London airports increased by eight percentage points to 78% and the average delay fell by five minutes to 12 minutes, between the third quarter of 2010 and the same period in 2011. The biggest increases in on-time performance were seen at Gatwick, Luton and Stansted which increased their on-time performance by 13, 11 and 10 percentage points respectively. Average delay fell by ten minutes at Gatwick, by eight minutes at Luton and by six minutes at Stansted. Heathrow’s average delay fell by just two minutes. London City’s on-time performance and average delay were flat year on year, but still achieved the best metrics with an on-time performance of 88% and average delay of just seven minutes.

Overall, on-time performance for scheduled flights at regional airports improved by five percentage points and the average delay fell by three minutes in the third quarter of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010. Average delay fell by two minutes at Glasgow, three minutes at Birmingham and Edinburgh, four minutes at Manchester and five minutes at Newcastle.

Charter Flights
The proportion of on-time charter flights increased by ten percentage points to 73%, compared with the same period of 2010. The average delay across all charter flights monitored in the third quarter of 2011 was 22 minutes, an improvement on 30 minutes recorded in the third quarter of 2010. This improvement in charter punctuality performance was similar in magnitude at London and regional airports.

Destinations with most passengers
Among the 75 scheduled and charter destinations with the most passengers in the third quarter of 2011, flights to and from Larnaca (Cyprus) recorded the worst on-time performance of 61% and Toronto the highest average delay of 23 minutes. Flights between the 10 monitored airports and London City had the highest on-time performance (89%), and shortest average delay (6 minutes).