UK Airport Delays Revealed
The UK's civil aviation regulator has released a league table showing the level of punctuality at the UK's major airports - and once again London Heathrow Airport ranked poorly.
Assessing punctuality in performance at 10 airports from October to December 2007, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the average delay was 17 minutes, with 69% of scheduled flights departing on time. This was an improvement on the figure recorded in 2006. Also, two-thirds of charter flights left the airports on time.
The airports involved in the assessment were the five London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, City, Stansted, Luton), as well as Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle.
Heathrow Airport Delays
However, beyond these average figures, the performance was less impressive for two airports in particular - Heathrow and London City.
At Heathrow, the CAA said, scheduled flights were delayed by an average of 21 mintues - longer than at any of the other ten airports. This meant only 60% of flights arrived or departed from Heathrow on time, fully 9% below the national average.
The worst punctuality was recorded by London City. There, over 40% of flight arrivals and departures were delayed, with the average delay 20 minutes.
Contrasting with this, all the other airports in the CAA survey actually improved their "on-time performance" - the measure used by the CAA to detect whether a flight departs or arrives on schedule, and defined as earlier than the schedule or up to 15 minutes late.
"Heathrow Hassle"
The punctuality figures from the CAA are just the latest in a long line of similar reports showing that Heathrow suffers from delays. In September 2007, for instance, a report by the Association of European Airlines trade group, said Heathrow was the most-delayed major European airport during the busy summer months. A month previously, in August, Heathrow's operator the British Airports Authority (BAA) was fined by the CAA for the delays experienced by passengers.
More generally, the media has coined a term for the delays seen at the UK's busiest flight hub - "Heathrow Hassle". Last month, Heathrow scored poorly in a survey of international air passengers by consulting group Skytrax, asked questions about customer service and passenger facilities at world airports.
The latest punctuality figures have been used by the supporters of Heathrow's proposed expansion as evidence that a third runway and sixth terminal is needed.
Lord Clive Soley of Hammersmith, campaign director of lobbyists Future Heathrow, a campaign group of aviation industry and local businesses who support Heathrow's expansion, commented: "Heathrow's two runways are currently operating at 99 per cent of their permitted capacity and this is leading to unnecessary delays for passengers".
He added: "Both Amsterdam and Paris have more flights than Heathrow but fewer delays thanks to the spare capacity provided by their extra runways. Frankfurt has three runways, Paris CDG has four, Amsterdam has five, and all operate at less than 75 per cent of their capacity. These figures show that additional capacity at Heathrow is needed now if the UK is to maintain its competitive edge."
Source - Airport International's London Reporter
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