The summer holiday period is well under way and thousands of passengers every day are jetting off from Birmingham Airport for a well-earned break. Following disruption at many airports earlier this year with long security queues and delays, travellers have reported a much smoother experience passing through BHX in recent weeks.
Data from the Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] shows one in five flights leaving UK airports took off later than planned in the year to April 2022 – the most recent figures available. The average delay was 11 minutes.
However, some flights were more likely to be delayed than others and some delays were much longer. At Birmingham Airport, the Wizz Air flight to Bucharest Otopeni in Romania was the most likely to be delayed – with 64.5 per cent of the 169 flights that took off running at least 15 minutes late.
The average delay for the flight was 32 minutes, however none of these flights were cancelled over the 12-month period. Following this was the TUI flight to Cancun in Mexico and the Turkish Airlines service to Istanbul, which both saw 60.3 per cent of flights delayed by 15 minutes or more.
The Swiss Airlines flight to Zurich in Switzerland followed at 57.5 per cent and then the Wizz Air Craiova service at 54.9 per cent. Those heading to Cancun in Mexico with TUI faced the longest waits on average that year.
The average delay on the 63 flights that flew out with TUI to Cancun was 58 minutes. The Wizz Air Birmingham to Warsaw in Poland flight saw average delays of 38 minutes, while the Wizz Air to Bucharest service saw an average 32-minute delay.
The worst case scenario for most holidaymakers, however, is a flight being cancelled altogether. The route most likely to be cancelled at Birmingham Airport was the Stobart Air to Belfast City, with one in six – 16.7 per cent – cancelled in the 12 months up to April.
The Blue Islands flight to Jersey was next on the list, with 6.3 per cent of services being axed, followed by the Aurigny Air Services to Guernsey at 4.3 per cent and the Loganair to Inverness at 3.8 per cent.
Source: Emily Collis
www.sports24ghana.com
