Best and worst UK airports for tardiness
Discussion
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-48424232
No real surprise about Stansted.
Heathrow is impressive given the volume and range of airlines it handles.
No real surprise about Stansted.
Heathrow is impressive given the volume and range of airlines it handles.
How on earth is Heathrow low on the list? I'm a frequent flyer and use either Heathrow or Schiphol as a connection hub. I'm struggling to think of the last time my flight wasn't delayed at Heathrow. Not sure if it's a KLM vs BA thing but apart from last week using KLM for Budapest, they just tend to be on time. I always ask for a bit longer connection if I'm in T5 to give me a fighting chance of making my connection.
toon10 said:
How on earth is Heathrow low on the list? I'm a frequent flyer and use either Heathrow or Schiphol as a connection hub. I'm struggling to think of the last time my flight wasn't delayed at Heathrow. Not sure if it's a KLM vs BA thing but apart from last week using KLM for Budapest, they just tend to be on time. I always ask for a bit longer connection if I'm in T5 to give me a fighting chance of making my connection.
This isn't saying that flights are not delayed, it is saying that when they are delayed, its less of a delay at Heathrow on average compared to elsewhere. Shakermaker said:
I would have thought having a second runway would aid Manchester in reducing delays somewhat compared to all the single runway airports which are surely more susceptible to such issues. But perhaps the type of airlines which use it, compared to Heathrow, are part of the problem?
One of the big problems at Manchester is that a lot of the regional and low-cost carrier flights go in and out of the the Cul de sac type structure which means that it can be difficult to get in and out if someone else is in the taxi-way there.It's not the only problem, but it is significant.
louiebaby said:
One of the big problems at Manchester is that a lot of the regional and low-cost carrier flights go in and out of the the Cul de sac type structure which means that it can be difficult to get in and out if someone else is in the taxi-way there.
It's not the only problem, but it is significant.
Ah yes, that will also account for it as well. It's not the only problem, but it is significant.
Intelligent stand planning only goes so far in these situations, you can only work with the infrastructure in front of you
toon10 said:
How on earth is Heathrow low on the list? I'm a frequent flyer and use either Heathrow or Schiphol as a connection hub. I'm struggling to think of the last time my flight wasn't delayed at Heathrow. Not sure if it's a KLM vs BA thing but apart from last week using KLM for Budapest, they just tend to be on time. I always ask for a bit longer connection if I'm in T5 to give me a fighting chance of making my connection.
At Heathrow most airlines are scheduled and just cancel flights when there’s big delays due to snow, fog, acts of god etc so there’s less delays and knock on delays. Obviously it might actually be worse for passengers having cancellation than a 2 hour delay but there you go.Those results don’t show cancellations so airports with more airlines that don’t cancel like holiday airlines eg Thomas cook, TUI, jet2, etc will have worse stats.
Even between airlines and airports the on time stats get fudged by releasing the park brake or calling ready early or pushing back on time and parking somewhere for a while before taking off.
Shakermaker said:
I would have thought having a second runway would aid Manchester in reducing delays somewhat compared to all the single runway airports which are surely more susceptible to such issues. But perhaps the type of airlines which use it, compared to Heathrow, are part of the problem?
MAN is the 4th busiest airport in the UK by aircraft movement and 3rd by passenger movement, it has 201,000 odd movements where as Gatwick has 283,000 and Heathrow has 477,000. passenger numbers are a good 18 million less than LGW so MAN is probably probably pushing a lot more smaller aircraft around. Also the way the 2nd runway is positioned it looks like taxiing may be a bit of an issue. However going by some previous posts, MAN just seems poorly managed in it's entirety.
toon10 said:
How on earth is Heathrow low on the list? I'm a frequent flyer and use either Heathrow or Schiphol as a connection hub. I'm struggling to think of the last time my flight wasn't delayed at Heathrow. Not sure if it's a KLM vs BA thing but apart from last week using KLM for Budapest, they just tend to be on time. I always ask for a bit longer connection if I'm in T5 to give me a fighting chance of making my connection.
I definitely think it's a BA thing. I usually fly via Star Alliance carriers so I'm struggling to think of when one of my flights has been late... I'm pretty sure that has been never. I'm usually flying out of T2 or T4 if I'm flying via Europe.BA operates more like a budget airline these days, quick turnaround of aircraft is key, time spent on the ground is money wasted. Because of this if the aircraft is delayed, even at another airport it sets off a chain reaction of delayed flights with that aircraft because there is no padding in the schedule for unforeseen delays.
captain_cynic said:
I definitely think it's a BA thing. I usually fly via Star Alliance carriers so I'm struggling to think of when one of my flights has been late... I'm pretty sure that has been never. I'm usually flying out of T2 or T4 if I'm flying via Europe.
BA operates more like a budget airline these days, quick turnaround of aircraft is key, time spent on the ground is money wasted. Because of this if the aircraft is delayed, even at another airport it sets off a chain reaction of delayed flights with that aircraft because there is no padding in the schedule for unforeseen delays.
Heathrow suffers from congestion more than any other European hub including quite regularly 15+minutes of airborne holding. As their hub BA therefore suffer because of this more than other airlines based at quieter airports and those with enough tarmac to match demand. I don’t think their turnarounds are particularly tight compared to any other carrier. Very few airlines will leave planes on the ground for any longer than is necessary especially short haul aircraft. BA operates more like a budget airline these days, quick turnaround of aircraft is key, time spent on the ground is money wasted. Because of this if the aircraft is delayed, even at another airport it sets off a chain reaction of delayed flights with that aircraft because there is no padding in the schedule for unforeseen delays.
I flew with SAS in January and both flights were late one almost costing me my connection the other end.
djc206 said:
Heathrow suffers from congestion more than any other European hub including quite regularly 15+minutes of airborne holding. As their hub BA therefore suffer because of this more than other airlines based at quieter airports and those with enough tarmac to match demand. I don’t think their turnarounds are particularly tight compared to any other carrier. Very few airlines will leave planes on the ground for any longer than is necessary especially short haul aircraft.
I flew with SAS in January and both flights were late one almost costing me my connection the other end.
Heathrow is definitely congested, many other airports that have similar workloads have 3 or 4 runways... that being said I think Heathrow handles it well. Most airlines tend to build in the fact that they spend 10-15 mins taxiing before take off, certainly United, Singapore and Avianca do. Pretty sure American does but I've only flown with them once.I flew with SAS in January and both flights were late one almost costing me my connection the other end.
Because of the congestion, Heathrow isn't well suited to the budget airline model, I guess that's why most of them fly out of Gatwick or Luton.
I'm no lover of BA, but for balance, first to toon10 I've flown 3 times this year from Glasgow to Kuwait on KLM. the delays out of Schipol were -1, -2 and -4 hours. -1 is usually acceptable for medium/long haul because they catch up a chunk of that in the air. -4 hours was the difference between getting into Kuwait at 10pm and getting a night's sleep, and getting home at 3am, getting up at 6 to go to work. Not good. I use the BA from Heathrow to Kuwait regularly as well, and it is almost never more than 1 hour late (although it does depart at closing time arount 11pm).
(interestingly the 4 hour delay was because of a tech fault on the plane. They couldn't empty the sewage tanks from the previous flight, so didn't have toilets available to use to Kuwait. Eventually after 4 hours they got 1 tank emptied so loaded up half of the passengers, and left the others waiting at the gate. I was one of the lucky ones)
And captain cynic I was a Star Alliance gold member for many years (platinum on a couple of occasions) South African and Ethiopian are Star Alliance members, and my experiences are nothing like yours. I've spent the night sleeping on an airport terminal floor more than once, even holding a full price business class ticket.
I think we all have good and bad experiences of all airlines, and none of them are really any better than the other. But this thread is about airports, not airlines, and some airports are definately worse than others, although it's not always their fault. For example I refuse to fly Emirates, purely because of how much I hate T3 at Dubai. It's just far, far, far too big.
(interestingly the 4 hour delay was because of a tech fault on the plane. They couldn't empty the sewage tanks from the previous flight, so didn't have toilets available to use to Kuwait. Eventually after 4 hours they got 1 tank emptied so loaded up half of the passengers, and left the others waiting at the gate. I was one of the lucky ones)
And captain cynic I was a Star Alliance gold member for many years (platinum on a couple of occasions) South African and Ethiopian are Star Alliance members, and my experiences are nothing like yours. I've spent the night sleeping on an airport terminal floor more than once, even holding a full price business class ticket.
I think we all have good and bad experiences of all airlines, and none of them are really any better than the other. But this thread is about airports, not airlines, and some airports are definately worse than others, although it's not always their fault. For example I refuse to fly Emirates, purely because of how much I hate T3 at Dubai. It's just far, far, far too big.
Teddy Lop said:
How are the airports being blamed for the "tardiness" here, with no breakdown of reasons for delays?
For instance isn't stansted the hub of ryanair, who last time I looked seem to have their operations omitted from airline punctuality rankings?
"Data includes all scheduled and charter flights but excludes cancellations"For instance isn't stansted the hub of ryanair, who last time I looked seem to have their operations omitted from airline punctuality rankings?
Yes, there is no breakdown of the reason for the delays, this is Press Association Analysis of CAA data.
Some airports will use this to their advantage - "Best big airport with the least delays" or something else.
Others will try to distance themselves "We aren't causing the delays, its the airlines, here have a look at some more data that shows why there were delays"
And some will maybe try to have a co-operative attempt to reduce delays of all reasons with the belief that is better for all parties involved
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