Of the 10 airlines carrying the largest numbers of passengers from the UK, the worst chance of a failed getaway could be with Dutch airline KLM. Between October 2023 and September 2024, it had the highest number of last-minute cancellations, cancelling 3.9% of its flights less than 24 hours before they were due to depart, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
That’s worse than any of the other big carriers. Even the figures for easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair and Tui were a fraction of that. KLM told us that 'the staffing shortages we experienced two years ago have been resolved'. It said that passengers would receive the service they expect, even at peak times.
British Airways continues to have much higher than average cancellations. Over the past 12 months, it cancelled 2.4% of flights within 24 hours of departure.
Long delays for some Air India, American Air and Wizz passengers
While KLM had the highest last-minute cancellations, it was not the worst for delays: in fact, 65% of its flights departed on time, which was fairly average.
The CAA classifies any flight that departs or arrives more than 15 minutes late as not on time. Its figures also break down how late those flights were.
The worst airline for long delays, of the more than 50 carriers that we looked at overall, was Air India, with 4% of its flights departing more than three hours late.
The next worse were Channel Islands carrier Aurigny (2.7%), American Airlines (2.4%) and Wizz Air (1.8%).
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When you include shorter delays, the worst airline for punctuality was Egypt Air. Only 27% of its flights left on time, with 1% of them leaving more than three hours late.
A couple of other major airlines were also only punctual less than half the time – Air India (48%) and Turkey-based SunExpress (45%).
SunExpress’s co-owner Turkish Airlines was only on time 51% as was, against all stereotypes, Swiss.
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British Airways offshoot BA Euroflyer, which operates short-haul flights from Gatwick, also had a poor record for punctuality. Just 58% of its flights departed on time. However, only a tiny fraction of them – 0.03% – were actually cancelled.
Its other off-shoot, BA Cityflyer, which is based at London City but also has some flights from Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere, was more punctual, with 74% of flights on time. But 2.3% of flights were cancelled within 24 hours, similar to the parent airline.
British Airways told us that it's invested £7 billion in resilience and has cancelled 30% fewer flights this year than last. It also said most cancellations were caused by 'adverse weather, airfield restrictions, third-party industrial action or as a result of delays in the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce.'
Jet2 more reliable than Ryanair or easyJet
Ryanair was less likely to cancel flights than easyJet – just 0.2% of its flights were cancelled at the last minute, compared with 0.9% for easyJet.
They had similar records on punctuality, with just over 65% of Ryanair flights leaving on time, while just under 67% of easyJet flights left on time.
According to CAA figures, both Ryanair and easyJet were beaten by Jet2, which was on time for just under 68% of flights and only cancelled 0.1% at the last minute.
The worst airlines for cancellations
Of all the carriers we looked at, the airline with the highest cancellations was UK regional carrier Eastern Airways, which, among other flights, connects Wick in the very north of Scotland with Aberdeen. More than one in 10 (10.5%) of its flights were cancelled within 24 hours of planned departure.
The worst performers were typically airlines that fly to islands or other areas frequently affected by bad weather, although there were some exceptions such as KLM and Air China. We asked Eastern Airways about the figures, but it hadn’t responded at the time of publication.
The next worst was Norwegian carrier Wideroe (7.4%), Air China (6.2%), Channel Islands carrier Aurigny (4.7%), KLM (3.9%), Lufthansa (3.7%) and another UK regional airline, Loganair (3.6%).
Best and worst airlines for cancellations and delaysStatistics for October 23-September 24, 2024, from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on percentage of flights to depart on time (less than 15 minutes late) and percentage to be cancelled within 24 hours of scheduled departure.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/will-these-airlines-ruin-your-christmas-ai8Ry3Q7tPel