AirHelp presents the best airlines for flights from UK airports, which ensure maximum avoidance of flight disruptions and promise travellers an unforgettable, “in time” journey without hassle, delays and cancellations.
The company analysed data for 2023, including short-haul (less than 1,500 km), medium-haul (between 1,500 km and 3,000 km) and long-haul (over 3,000 km) flights.
In 2023, more than 71 million passengers flew short-haul flights from UK airports – 35 million on medium-haul flights and 28 million on long-haul flights.
The data shows that the rates of flight disruption in all three categories were similar, with passengers on short-haul flights having the fewest disruptions (30%) and passengers on medium-haul flights the most (34%). Over 4% of short-haul flights were cancelled, compared to 2% of medium-haul and long-haul flights.
Comparison of short-haul airlines
AirHelp analysed flight data from airlines that carried more than 500,000 passengers on short-haul flights from the UK last year and found:
– Eurowings was the leading airline in terms of on-time departures, with 90% of its 724,000 passengers departing on time. It had the lowest percentage of passenger delays in the three categories: over 15 minutes (8%), over two hours (0.3%) and over three hours (0.04%).
– The airline with the lowest cancellation rate was Jet2 with 0.07% of its 991,000 passengers experiencing cancellations.
-Jet2 tied with Iberia as the second best airline in terms of on-time departures, with 78% of passengers departing on time.
– Of the three most popular short-haul airlines – EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair – Ryanair performed best overall, with 72% of passengers departing on time and less than 1% of its 13 million passengers experiencing cancellations or delays of more than three hours.
– EasyJet and British Airways were both in the bottom three for overall on-time departures, with 62% of their 20 million and 15 million passengers respectively departing on time, just above Swiss International with 59%.
– EasyJet also had the highest cancellation rate, with almost 7% of passengers experiencing cancellations, while 4% of British Airways passengers had flights cancelled.
Comparison of medium-haul airlines
– Looking at airlines with more than one million passengers on medium-haul flights from UK airports last year, Jet2 emerged as the best performing airline, with 72% of its 7 million passengers departing on time, less than 2% of passengers delayed more than two hours and 0.2% of passengers experiencing cancellations.
– Ryanair (71% of 7 million), Wizz Air UK (69% of 1.6 million) and Wizz Air (67% of 1.7 million) were also in the top four with the highest overall on-time departure rates. However, both Wizz Air UK and Wizz Air had the highest rates of passenger delays of more than two hours, with 6% and 5% respectively.
– TUI Airways had the lowest on-time departure rate, with 49% of its 1.2 million passengers departing on time. Of the passengers who suffered disruption to their flights, 5% were delayed more than 2 hours and almost 8% of passengers cancelled their flight – the highest rate of medium-haul flight cancellations last year.
– Turkish Airlines also performed poorly in terms of on-time departures, with less than 51% of passengers flying on time, although only 2% of them were delayed by more than two hours.
– With almost 3 million passengers on medium-haul flights, British Airways, the UK’s national carrier, achieved on-time departures for 61% of passengers, while almost 2% of passengers saw their flights cancelled – the third highest rate of cancellations.
– Easyjet, the largest UK carrier for medium-haul flights last year, saw more than three hours of delay for 0.6% of its more than 8 million passengers, while almost 5% of passengers experienced flight cancellations.
Comparison of long-haul airlines
AirHelp also analyzed the performance of airlines that carried more than 400,000 passengers on long-haul flights in 2023. All three airlines with the best performance in terms of on-time passenger departures were U.S. airlines.
– American Airlines ranked first with 84% of on-time departures and was among the top carriers with more than 2 million passengers in 2023. Delta Air Lines (81%) and United Airlines (78%) followed as the most punctual.
– TUI Airways was the worst performer, with only 47% of its 400,000 passengers departing on time and over 7% of passengers experiencing cancellations – the second highest cancellation rate last year.
– Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong’s leading carrier, came in second place with 50% of flights departing on time, but only 0.2% of its passengers experienced cancellations.
– British Airways followed with less than 52% of passengers departing on time and more than 3% of its 7.7 million passengers delayed by more than two hours.
– The airline with the most cancellations by a significant margin was Easyjet with 13.5% of its 440,000 passengers facing long-haul flight cancellations.
– Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Etihad Airways, Emirates and Air India did well in terms of on-time departures, with over 70% of passengers departing on time. The majority of these delays and disruptions were not significant, however, on Air India 3.5% of passengers experienced delays of more than two hours.
– Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways and Emirates had the lowest rates of cancellations (less than 0.15%) and delays of more than three hours (less than 0.5%).
