Gatwick departures were delayed by an average of 26 minutes and 51 seconds last year reports Andrew Dowdeswell, Data Reporter

Passengers at an airport waiting to board their planes — The average delay for flights across the UK was 20 minutes and 43 seconds – (Credit-Radar)

The scale of delays faced by Barnet residents at their local airports has been revealed.

Passengers flying out of Gatwick Airport will be most disappointed, as the airport tops the charts for the longest delays of the UK’s 22 commercial airports with at least 1,000 flights in 2023.

RADAR analysis of Civil Aviation Authority figures shows Gatwick departures were delayed by an average of 26 minutes and 51 seconds last year, four minutes more than any other airport in the country.

The airport also had 2,183 cancellations, equivalent to 2% of its total departures.

Gatwick imposed a temporary cap on flights in September to try and limit short-notice cancellations and delays due to staff shortages in its air traffic control tower.

In a statement, the airport said it is “working closely with our airline partners to improve on-time performance”.

It added: “As the most efficient single runway airport in the world, we aim to deliver a seamless passenger experience. The majority of cancellations are caused by poor weather, airspace constraints across Europe and inefficient third-party ground operations.

“In addition, we have published a six-year capital investment programme setting out significant improvements to develop and enhance infrastructure and facilities to build the resilience of the airport.”

Second in the charts nationally was Luton Airport, with passengers delayed for take-off by an average of 22 minutes and 51 seconds.

Heathrow Airport was the busiest airport in the country, with more than 200,000 departures last year. They were delayed by 19 minutes and 59 seconds on average, with a further 4,645 (2%) cancelled.

Passengers flying out of the final three London airports – Southend, which only had 468 departures, Stansted, and London City Airport – were delayed by 25, 19 and 16 minutes respectively.

The average delay for flights across the UK was 20 minutes and 43 seconds.

This was down from 23 minutes and 12 seconds in 2022, when the aviation sector struggled to cope with a surge in demand for holidays following the end of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Meanwhile, 14,900 flights were cancelled.

Naomi Leach, deputy editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, said: “It’s clear from these latest figures that millions of passengers continued to experience unacceptably long hold-ups last year.

“This cannot be allowed to become the new normal.”

CAA director Tim Johnson said it is vital the aviation sector “focuses on resilience” ahead of the summer holiday period to “keep passenger disruption to a minimum”.

He added: “Where people do find themselves facing disruption, we want them to be well-informed about the duty of care that they are entitled to.”

A spokesperson for the Airport Operators Association trade body said: “Airports work extremely hard to minimise delays while providing a positive, safe and secure experience for passengers.

“These figures do not provide any of the context around operating in a global environment and do not give the travelling public a clear picture of how air travel operates.”

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