The study, by marketing specialists JamPrime, analysed the latest data from the Civil Aviation Authority, looking at flights out of London’s major airports in the months of June, July and August 2024. It analysed each airport’s top 20 most flown to destinations and ranked them based on the percentage of flights that were delayed by 60 minutes or more.
The results revealed that anyone planning a trip to Turkey this summer from London’s two biggest airports should prepare for delays. Antalya topped the list of Gatwick flights that were likely to be late, while Istanbul was the flight out of Heathrow with the highest rate of delays.
In total 864 flights departed from Gatwick to Antalya in the three months that were measured, and 245 of them were delayed by at least an hour, which equates to 28.36% - the highest of the top 20 most popular flights out of the London hub. Milan Malpensa had the second worst delay rate from Gatwick, with 24.64% of flights (135 out of 548) being delayed by more than 60 minutes. Rhodes came third with exactly one in five flights from Gatwick passing the hour delay threshold, while Dublin was fourth (19.45%), and Dalaman, also in Turkey, was fifth (18.96%).
For Heathrow, the delays are most likely when flying to Istanbul, as 14.08% of departures to the Turkish metropolis were late by one hour or more (118 flights delayed out of 838). Two American airports take the second and third slots in Heathrow’s lateness rankings – Chicago O’Hare, with 12.78% of flights delayed at least an hour, and Los Angeles International with 10.61%. Doha Hamad in Qatar (9.41%) and Zurich in Switzerland (9%) round out the top five.
London’s third biggest airport Stansted had lateness issues with two Italian destinations during the three months of 2024 that were measured. Pisa topped the list based on 74 of the 288 flights to the Tuscan city being at least one hour late, resulting in a percentage of 25.69%. Then Bergamo came in second on 25.56% after 92 of the 360 flights there from Stansted were delayed by 60 minutes or more. Stansted’s top five was completed by Antalya (23.08%), Edinburgh (19.77%) and Bucharest Otopeni (19.68%).
Luton’s top five most delayed destinations are all in Central and Eastern Europe. Romania’s Bucharest Otopeni airport has the highest percentage of delays out of all five London airports that were analysed. Out of 307 flights there from Luton, 126 of them were late by at least an hour – 41.04%. Hungary’s Budapest airport takes second place with 31.41% of flights passing the hour delay threshold. It’s followed by Warsaw Chopin in Poland on 24.25%, Sofia in Bulgaria on 22.02%, and Tirana in Albania on 12.83%.
London City is the capital airport with the lowest delay percentages. Its worst performing route in June, July and August of 2024 was to Zurich, as 46 out of 434 flights there were delayed by at least an hour, which equates to 10.6%. Guernsey came in second on 9.82%, while Germany’s Frankfurt Main (9.46%) and Berlin Brandenburg (9.06%) came third and fourth respectively. Milan Linate was fifth on 8.93%.
Looking at the whole of the UK, Antalya in Turkey ranked as the destination where travellers from the UK were most likely to suffer delays. There were 4,008 flights to the airport during the summer months last year, making it the 12th most popular place to fly to from the UK, and 938 were delayed by more than one hour, which equates to 23.4%.
Milan’s Malpensa airport was in second place, with 19.46% of flights being at least one hour late. Out of 1,588 flights to the Italian city, 309 were delayed by more than 60 minutes.
Budapest in Hungary came in third in the summer lateness rankings due to 311 of 1,610 flights to the city from UK airports being late by an hour or more, which equates to 19.32%.
Across all 25 UK airports that were measured, 10.56% of departures were delayed more than an hour. In total there were 266,847 flights departing the airports in the three month period, and 28,185 were more than 60 minutes late.
Commenting on the study, Ben Nicholls, founder of JamPrime, said: “Millions of Brits wait all year to jet off on their summer holidays, but this research shows that they might face frustrating delays, especially when flying to certain destinations.
“The data is based on flights during the summer months of 2024, and July last year saw the global CrowdStrike-related IT outages which significantly impacted airports around the world, so travellers and airlines will be hoping that no such issues occur this year as the summer holidays arrive.”
The study was conducted by leading agency JamPrime, which specialises in marketing and communications for brands, public figures, entrepreneurs and influencers.