Vueling Airlines has the worst punctuality of major airlines flying from UK airports, an investigation has found.
The Spanish carrier’s UK departures were 31 minutes late on average in 2018, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data by the PA news agency.
Thomas Cook Airlines was found to have the second worst performance with flights typically 24 minutes late, followed by Wizz Air (23 minutes), Norwegian Air UK (22 minutes) and Eurowings (22 minutes).
READ MORE: Holidays from hell: your consumer rights
Norwegian Air UK is a British subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle, operating transatlantic flights from Gatwick Airport.
Cathay Pacific Airways is the most punctual airline, with aircraft typically taking off just eight minutes behind schedule.
The average delay across all flights was 16 minutes.
The ranking features the 43 airlines with more than 2,000 flights from UK airports last year.
Average delay figures take into account every flight that operated, including those that were on time. Cancelled services are excluded from the CAA data.
Strikes by air traffic controllers caused havoc for airlines last summer.
A spokesman for Vueling, which serves several UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Birmingham, said the low-cost airline’s punctuality was “hugely affected” by industrial action in France.
He went on: “There were 22 strike days at Marseille last summer.
“During these strikes, Vueling flights to and from Barcelona and the UK could not fly straight across France but instead flew south of the Pyrenees and into the Atlantic before looping back towards Britain.
“All airlines have been affected by air traffic control issues in Europe, but the location of Vueling’s (Barcelona) hub close to Marseille means it has been particularly badly affected.”
READ MORE: Edinburgh and Glasgow Airport amongst worst for flight delays in the UK
He added that the airline has taken measures to mitigate against the impact of further ATC issues, such as allocating up to 10 spare aircraft to operate flights during disruption.
Vueling’s parent company is International Airlines Group, which also owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia and Level.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of trade body Airlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers, said too many flights are affected by the country’s “antiquated airspace”.
He added: “We support Government in its efforts to introduce much needed modernisation so we can continue to safely and effectively accommodate the ever rising demand for air travel.”
Whereas many train companies pay compensation for delays of more than 15 minutes, airline passengers are only entitled to a pay out under European Union rules if they arrive at their destination more than three hours late.
Carriers can also avoid paying out if the disruption was due to “extraordinary circumstances” such as severe weather or a security alert.
Consumer magazine Which? Travel’s Naomi Leach said flight delays can leave holidaymakers “hundreds of pounds out of pocket because of missed connections, transfers and fines for picking up their hire car late”.
She added: “The worst airlines need to ensure they have the staff and capacity to run an on-time service – and that they look after their customers if delays do occur.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here