News: Fall in flight numbers leads to better punctuality

Flights > News > # 2188 (15/06/2009)

The punctuality of flights from UK airports has improved as flight numbers fall due to the recession.
According to the latest Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) figures, flight numbers declined by 9% and passengers handled fell by 11% in January to March, compared with the same months in 2008.
Over the same period London’s Heathrow airport improved punctuality by more than a third, and all ten airports monitored improved their performance.
During January to March 2009, the overall on-time performance (defined as early to 15 minutes late) of scheduled flights at the airports monitored by the CAA increased from 70% to 81%, compared with the same period in 2008.
At Heathrow, the average delay for scheduled flights was halved from 24 minutes to 12 minutes.
London City also halved its average delay to nine minutes in the latest quarter and achieved an on-time performance of 84%, up 18% on the same quarter in 2008.
On-time performance at regional airports rose by 9% and average delay fell by four minutes in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.
The greatest increases in on-time performance and decreases in average delay amongst the regional airports were seen at Edinburgh (12% and six minutes), Glasgow (10% and five minutes) and Manchester (8% and four minutes).