Flight delays have become an inescapable reality of modern travel, often as frustrating as the long walk through duty-free shops or the hassle of airport security.
Despite efforts to improve efficiency, delays seem as inevitable as any other travel inconvenience, making them a constant part of the journey for most passengers.
According to telegraph.co.uk, last year, more than a third of British passengers (around 45 million) suffered delays or cancellations, according to AirHelp.
EasyJet has a great feature on its app, which allows you to track the exact location of your aircraft. Unfortunately, while admiring this feature at Rome Fiumicino airport, three minutes before my flight was due to depart, I saw the little jet icon blipping along somewhere above the Alps.
The issue came to the fore again this week, when British Airways suffered yet another IT meltdown. This time, the airline’s communication systems shut down, affecting thousands of passengers across dozens of flights. The Heathrow departures board showed that the delays continued into Tuesday.
British Airways isn’t alone in struggling with punctuality. Last year, not one British carrier made it into the top ten list of European airlines for punctuality, according to Cirium data. The poor record has continued into 2024, with only one UK airline featuring in the monthly top ten lists (easyJet, ranking ninth in January) between January and October.
There are many reasons for this, one being geography. John Strickland, an aviation expert at JLS Consulting, points out that delays often lie outside of an airline’s control: “Any UK-based airline that flies internationally, especially to the southern Mediterranean, is already exposed to some of the worst air traffic control constraints in Europe, which can expose operators to massive delays right from the start of the operating day which then roll on to following flights but which are outside of their control,” he says.
Another issue is that Britain has two of Europe’s busiest and most capacity constrained airports in Heathrow and Gatwick, where British Airways and easyJet are the biggest airlines: “The smallest problem, be it air traffic control, IT failures or bad weather, can cause the dominoes to fall with massive implications for follow-on flights. There is simply no wriggle room, making recovery extremely difficult,” says Strickland.
Many airlines have suffered from late deliveries of new aircraft from Boeing, and supply chain issues at Rolls Royce have affected the distribution of vital engine parts. This is a global issue, and therefore is not an excuse as to why Britain’s airlines should struggle with punctuality more so than others. Still, it has “caused major headaches in planning and maintaining reliable and punctual operations,” says Strickland.
So what can we, the passenger, do about this? Flying with Iberia, the most punctual European airline in 2023, is one option. Another way to game the system is to book your flight from smaller regional airports. Exeter, Teesside, Liverpool and Aberdeen were among the best airports for punctuality in 2023, according to CAA data. Gatwick, Edinburgh, Bristol and Luton were among the worst.
Another simple way to dodge delays is to fly early. Knock-on delays are by far the biggest contributor to late-operating flights, accounting for around 45 per cent of delay minutes each year, according to Eurocontrol. Simple logic dictates that narrowing the number of hours in the day before your flight narrows your chances of seeing “delayed” on the departure board.
And indeed, if you are particularly keen to avoid flight delays, it could be worth getting even more scientific with your destination choice. The Telegraph has built a tool where you can enter your airport, airline and destination, and it will tell you the average length of delay and probability of cancellation. You may wish to pour yourself a stiff drink before checking the British Airways service from Gatwick to Catania, with a 60 per cent cancellation rate.
But don’t lose all hope. Some airlines are taking action to reduce delays. EasyJet, for example, introduced 14 standby aircraft across its network in the summer of 2024 to bring some operational stability – Ryanair did the same. The idea is that if a plane is delayed early on in the day, the spare can be “injected” into the programme to take on the afternoon flights, rather than allowing that delayed plane to derail the entire day.
Further efficiencies could be on the horizon. The Government plans to rip up the UK’s archaic airspace system – elements of which have been unchanged since the 1950s – to replace it with new, more efficient “air motorways” across the southeast. Airlines will also be able to make use of modern navigation technologies, reducing the need for pilots to enter holding patterns before getting permission to land.
On this front, nothing will change any time soon. Meaning you have two choices, as you look ahead to your 2025 holidays. You can either attempt to game the system (Iberia from Exeter at 6am, anyone?), or accept the reality that as your departure time approaches, your little pixelated plane icon will probably be crawling somewhere above Liechtenstein, rather than on the airfield where it ought to be.
