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Only three quarters of scheduled flights at main UK airports were on time in the third quarter of last year as punctuality deteriorated by five percentage points year-on-year.
Scheduled flights were delayed by an average of 14 minutes, an increase of two minutes when compared to the third quarter of 2013.
All 10 airports monitored by the Civil Aviation Authority suffered falls in flight punctuality.
Of the busiest 75 scheduled international destinations, Rotterdam recorded the best on-time performance at 87.6% and the lowest average delay of 7.5 minutes.
Flights to and from Pisa achieved the worst on-time performance with 49.9%.
Flights to and from Orlando achieved the highest average delay of 31.9 minutes.
The overall on-time performance for scheduled and charter flights was six percentage points lower than same period in 2013.
The five biggest London airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City – saw an overall reduction of six percentage points of on-time scheduled flights, falling from 79% to 73%.
The largest falls were at Luton (12 percentage points) and Gatwick (11 points), followed by Stansted (nine points), London City (four points) and Heathrow (less than one percentage point).
The five other UK airports monitored, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle, saw an overall reduction of three percentage points from 82% to 79% of scheduled flights on-time.
The overall on-time performance for charter flights was 71% – a decline of eight percentage points. The average delay was 18 minutes, which is two minutes more than in the third quarter of 2013.