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Flight punctuality falls in second quarter of 2014

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Flight punctuality at UK airports fell in the second quarter of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013.

On-time performance of scheduled flights was 78% – three percentage points lower than the equivalent period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City saw an overall reduction of three percentage points for on-time scheduled flights, falling from 80% to 77%.

The five other UK airports monitored – Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle – also saw an overall reduction of three percentage points, from 84% to 81% of flights on-time.

Individually, all ten airports saw punctuality deterioration. On-time performance falls for scheduled flights varied by airport, with the biggest fall being at Luton, where the decline was eight percentage points.

Scheduled flights were delayed by an average of 12 minutes overall, an increase of one minute against the second quarter of 2013.

The overall on-time performance for charter flights was 72% – a decline of five percentage points. However, the average delay was 18 minutes, the same as in the second quarter of 2013.

Rotterdam recorded the highest on-time performance with 88.3% and Stavanger, Norway, had the lowest average delay of 6.9 minutes.

Flights to and from Toronto achieved the lowest on-time performance with 59.7% and the highest average delay of 25.5 minutes.

British Air Transport Association chief executive Nathan Stower pledged to continue to work with our airports “to eradicate unnecessary delays and look after passengers when things do go wrong”.

He said: “While the latest figures for UK airports show a very small decline in performance compared with the same period for 2013, the first three months of 2014 saw the best first quarter results since records began.”

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