London City is the most punctual airport in the UK with 88% of the flights flying on time, and the shortest average delays not exceeding seven minutes in 2014.
According to a new report by Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Gatwick Airport figured last in punctuality with 74% flights operating on-time and average delay lasting up to 15 minutes.
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The findings of the report come at a time when a decision is pending with the Airports Commission on the expansion of either the Gatwick or the Heathrow airport.
CAA’s report has covered ten airports in the UK, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and London City and other regional airports including Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Flight punctuality across the airports fell to 79%, a dip of one percentage point.
The CAA defines an on-time performance as a flight early or up to and including15 minutes late.
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By GlobalDataTaking into account both aircraft arrival and departure in its report, CAA monitored around 69,000 chartered passenger flights and 1.4 million scheduled passenger flights in 2014 for the report.
Around 73% of charter flights left on time compared with 77% in 2013.
CAA group director for regulatory policy Iain Osborne said: "Arriving on-time matters to passengers and our work helps ensure consumers have the best data and information to make better and more informed choices.
"In the last five years punctuality has been improving and it is therefore disappointing to see a small dip in performance in the last year. Notwithstanding this, the industry has had to deal with some unseasonably poor weather and a number of overseas air traffic control strikes, both beyond their control."
Whereas the Newcastle, Manchester and Heathrow airports saw an improvement in on-time performance from 2013, the performance of the other seven airports saw a dip with Luton showing the biggest fall of five percentage points.
Image: London City recorded average delays of seven minutes. Photo: courtesy of London City Airport.
