Virgin Little Red flights between Edinburgh and Heathrow were twice as punctual as rival British Airways last year, according to new figures.
Edinburgh was also shown to be the UK’s third most punctual main airport after London City and Birmingham, with average delays of 9.2 minutes. Glasgow was fifth, after Stansted, with 10.3 minutes.
Passengers on Virgin’s short haul flights were delayed by an average of 5.7 minutes compared to 13.8 minutes for BA passengers to the London hub. The route is used by 1.3 million people a year.
The figures, compiled by the website flightontime.info from official Civil Aviation Authority statistics, cover 3,146 Virgin flights since their launch last April, The Scotsman newspaper reported.
BA said the vast majority of its 10,500 Edinburgh flights covered by the figures over the whole year were to Heathrow, with some to Gatwick.
The airline said punctuality had suffered from knock-on delays by its aircraft also flying on other routes, including in Europe.
A spokesman said: “We understand the importance of punctuality to our customers and we have been working hard to improve the service. During the first two months of 2014 we have seen a marked improvement, and we will aim to maintain this throughout the year.”
Virgin Atlantic network and alliances director Joe Thompson said: “Customer feedback has been excellent since we launched Virgin Atlantic Little Red last year and we recognise punctuality and reliability play a big part in this.
“Passengers flying short haul are always time-conscious whether they are connecting to a long-haul flight, heading to a meeting or catching the last flight home. We work extremely hard to ensure our flights depart and arrive on time and it’s great to see Little Red’s excellent punctuality is being recognised.”
Virgin, which effectively replaced BMI on the Edinburgh-Heathrow route after the airline merged with BA, has fewer flights from Edinburgh than BA and a smaller route network at Heathrow for transfer passengers.
Virgin Little Red passengers also have to change terminal at Heathrow while most BA travellers have direct connections from Terminal 5.
However, three in four of Virgin’s passengers are just flying to and from London and the airline said the proportion was growing.
The Virgin Little Red operation, which uses Aer Lingus aircraft under contract, “broadly broke even” in 2013 – reflecting start-up costs – and is forecast to turn profitable in 2014, it was discussed today in the Irish carrier’s annual report.