Departures from Birmingham airport in central England were on average 30 minutes behind schedule in 2022, new figures show.
It’s the second year in a row that the West Midlands airport has topped the list for having the longest average delay per departing flight.
The analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data by the PA news agency found that Manchester airport and Doncaster Sheffield (which closed in November) had the joint second poorest punctuality records in 2022, with an average delay of 29 minutes.
They were followed by Luton (28 minutes), London Gatwick (27 minutes) and Bristol (26 minutes) airports.
At the other end of the scale, East Midlands airport had the best performance, with an average delay of just 13 minutes. The average across all UK airports was 23 minutes.
The analysis took into account all scheduled and chartered departures, but did not include cancelled flights.
Overall, more than a third of UK flights were delayed in 2022. Only 63% of services departed or arrived in the UK within 15 minutes of their scheduled time — down from 75% in 2019, before the pandemic.
The UK aviation sector struggled to get back on track last year after pandemic restrictions on travel were lifted and passenger numbers started to recover. Staff shortages led to long queues at airports, flight delays and cancellations, and several airlines scaled back their schedules.
