Revealed: Britain’s worst ranked airport for flight delays

Manchester Airport is ranked as one of the worst airports in Britain for flight delays. This led to a warning that passengers cannot book flights there ‘with any confidence’.

Departures from the country’s third busiest airport were an average of 19 and a half minutes behind schedule in 2025, according to an analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data.

That was longer than all other UK airports, despite being a 30 second improvement on the previous year.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? magazine Travel said the choice of airport “shouldn’t make or break your trip”, but “too many holidays got off to a bad start last year”.

He added: ‘Manchester Airport has been ranked last in our airport survey for four years running and these new CAA figures confirm why this is a particularly bad place to be stranded during delays.

“For passengers already wary of travel uncertainty, seeing such consistent underperformance makes it difficult to book with real confidence.”

Birmingham Airport had the second worst flight punctuality last year, with an average delay of 18 minutes and 42 seconds.

And in third place was Bournemouth Airport at 17 minutes and 18 seconds.

According to CAA data, departures from Manchester Airport were on average 19 and a half minutes behind schedule in 2025 (File image)

Manchester Airport (pictured) is the only two-runway airport in Britain apart from Heathrow, and was used by 32 million passengers last year

Liverpool John Lennon Airport had the most punctual flights, with an average delay of nine minutes and 24 seconds.

The Press Association’s analysis took into account scheduled and chartered departures from the 23 commercial UK airports with at least 1,000 outbound flights last year.

The average departure delay was 14 minutes and 54 seconds, compared to 18 minutes and 24 seconds in 2024.

Manchester is the only two-runway airport in Britain apart from Heathrow and was used by 32 million passengers last year.

An airport spokesperson said: ‘The two main factors contributing to delays over the past year are industrial action affecting air traffic control in Europe and the weather.

‘These were exacerbated by airspace restrictions over conflict zones, meaning airports with significant long-haul networks were more severely affected.

‘As an industry, we work together to achieve the best possible rates for on-time departures.’

A spokesperson for Bournemouth Airport said the reasons for delays are “out of control in most cases” and that it is “one of Britain’s top-ranked regional airports for passenger satisfaction”.

Birmingham Airport did not respond to a request for comment.