It’s the season of giving for many of us, but no-one wants to receive the news of a delayed flight. We’ve analysed data* for the Christmas and New Year period for the past two years and can share with you the best and worst airports when it comes to delays, along with some tips on how to kill time and keep your stress levels in check at the worst performers.
Delays at popular UK airports during the festive season
Let’s start with the good news – especially for travellers departing from the northern third of England. Just 4% of flights leaving the Leeds Bradford Airport were delayed by 30 minutes or more in the last two festive seasons and Newcastle International Airport was only slightly worse off at 6%. At Manchester Airport, on the other hand, a staggering 20% of all departing flights experienced delays of 30 minutes or more over the past two years. Londoners beware too: Gatwick didn’t fare much better – 17% of departing flights were delayed by half an hour or more, and of those delayed flights, the average delay stretched to be a whopping 72 minutes. The smaller London airports – Luton and City – are a safer bet with just 7% of departing flights delayed by 30 minutes or more over the holiday period.
Brits travelling abroad, beware
Of course, many of us are likely to be travelling internationally over the festive period – either to visit friends and family abroad or to return home for the holidays. So which international airports are most likely to you there on time?
Brits braving a long-haul flight this holiday season to Sydney, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok can expect no more than a 12% chance of delay based on the last two years’ data. The three major airports for the ever-popular New York City, on the other hand, have incoming and outgoing delays of over 15%. Delhi is the slowest overall, with 25% or more delays and a long average delay time of 104 minutes.
If this is ominous news for you, here are some of our tips on what to do to pass the time at some of the key UK airports.
- London Gatwick: this is your chance for last-minute gift shopping – there are after-security options here. You can peruse a collection of over 250 whiskies at World of Whiskies, check out high street fashion at Ted Baker London and stock up last minute on British brands at the Harrods Gatwick boutique.
- London Heathrow: ease the delay by indulging in the some of the best of British cuisine at Heathrow. There’s Heston Blumenthal’s The Perfectionists’ Cafe in T2, or Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food in T5. There’s also plenty of high-quality, London-style takeaway about to feast away the time.
- Aberdeen Airport: if you haven’t cleared security yet, pull up a chair at The Granite City by Wetherspoon bar & beer garden and try a locally brewed craft beer, tea or coffee, while making the most of the free high-speed Wi-Fi.
And here’s our best tip of all: create an account on KAYAK.co.uk and organise your itinerary with KAYAK Trips. KAYAK Trips has a built-in flight tracker and will keep you up to date on the status of your flight via phone notifications or emails. That way, you’ll never miss a beat (or a bell).
*Data for flight delays provided by flightstats.com. Time periods considered in the flightstats.com analysis are two full years between 01.10.14 – 31.09.16 and two holiday periods between 18.12.14 – 10.01.15 and 18.12.15 – 10.01.16. Airports considered are popular departure and destination airports based on flight searches on KAYAK between 01.06.16 – 21.10.16 for travel between 16.12.16 -01.08.17.
