Summer charter flight punctuality slump recorded

The number of charter flights leaving on time deteriorated during the peak summer months, new figures show.

The proportion of on-time charter flights fell by seven percentage points to 59%, compared with 66% in the same July-September period the year before.

Gatwick, the airport with the biggest charter operation, saw on-time performance slump to 55% from 65%.

The average delay across all charter flights monitored increased from 29 minutes to 32 minutes.

Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Birmingham and Glasgow all saw increases in their average charter delay, according to latest Civil Aviation Authority statistics.

Bodrum (Milas) was the charter destination with the worst performance. It attained an on-time performance of 55% and an average delay of 35 minutes.

The punctuality of scheduled flights improved in the third quarter with the overall on-time performance (defined as early to 15 minutes late) at the ten UK airports monitored increasing by four percentage points to 70%.

The average delay across all the scheduled flights monitored declined by two minutes to 17 minutes.

Average delays declineed at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, London City, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle, but increased by three minutes at Luton to 20 minutes.

Heathrow and Gatwick improved their scheduled on-time performance by six percentage points.

Stansted and London City airports' scheduled on-time performance increased by five percentage points.

But at Luton, 64% of flights were on time, representing a decline of four percentage points over the same period in 2007.

Overall, on-time performance of scheduled services at the London airports monitored increased by five percentage points to 68%.

At Manchester, on-time performance was unchanged at 74%, whilst at Edinburgh it improved by ten percentage points to 77%, and at Glasgow by six percentage points to 76%.

On-time performance of scheduled services overall at the regional airports monitored increased by four percentage points to 76%.

Among the 75 scheduled and charter destinations handling the largest number of passengers, Athens recorded the worst on-time performance, with 52%.

Toronto had the highest average delay, of 29 minutes, for scheduled destinations.

Rotterdam had the highest on-time performance (85%) and the shortest average delay (eight minutes) amongst the top 75 scheduled and charter destinations.

With permission from Travelmole