Airline delays hit 17m UK passengers every year with Thomas Cook named as worst

Eight out of 10 airlines in the UK saw a rise in flights being late by more than an hour, a report reveals.

Those “unacceptable” delays last year affected 17 million passengers.

The numbers of Ryanair, Wizz Air and EasyJet flights failing to take off on time doubled from 2014 to 2018.

Thomas Cook’s 11.5% of late services is the poorest while Stansted is Britain’s worst airport for delays, a Which? study shows.

Naomi Leach, from the consumer watchdog, said: “This is unacceptable. Delays can leave people hun­­dreds of pounds out of pocket.

“The worst airlines and airports need to ensure they have the staff and facilities to run an on-time service.” Stansted’s record has got worse every year for the past five – with there now being a 10% chance of a delay of an hour or more.

Air traffic management organisation Eurocontrol told Which? that the carriers were often to blame for delays.

The airlines which have improved punctuality are Jet2 and British Airways.

Ryanair said the figures “are inflated”, easyJet and Thomas Cook blamed factors beyond their control – while Stansted said it had improved in 2019.