The UK’s worst airport for delays has been revealed

There’s nothing worse than getting to the airport in plenty of time to catch your flight, only to find out that your departure has been delayed. While bad weather usually gets the blame, it turns out where you’re taking off from makes a big difference too. 

Drum roll please. The UK’s worst airport for delays last year has been officially named, and surprise surprise, it’s the same airport as the last four years.

AirAdvisor, the experts behind air passenger rights, have looked into the percentage of all flights at the UK’s 20 busiest airports (excluding the Channel Islands) that took off over an hour late in the past 12 months. Then it ranked them all from the airport with the most delays to the least. 

Manchester Airport was the worst major air hub for delays from September 2025 to October 2026, with 7.73 percent of all flights delayed by over 60 minutes. Sadly for Mancunians, this airport has consistently had the highest number of departures for the past four years.

This might be surprising news, but Manchester Airport handles a high volume of flights. It’s the third busiest airport in the UK after Heathrow and Gatwick in London. On average, 75,000 people depart or arrive on services from the North West hub each day.

After Manchester, Birmingham had the next highest number of delayed flights with 7.16 percent of departures, followed by Bournemouth. Cardiff and Heathrow came out as the most punctual – only 3.89 percent of departures at London’s busiest airport were delayed.

But Air Advisor indicated delays are not always the individual airport’s fault, and weather based on location can play a role.

Anton Radchenko, CEO of Air Advisor, said: ‘Flight punctuality at any individual airport is not necessarily an indication of an airport’s overall reliability.

‘This is because factors sometimes completely outside of an airport’s control, like weather, particularly high winds and fog can lead to disruption.’ 

Manchester Airport points out the same thing. In response to this year’s findings, a spokesperson for the airport told Time Out: ‘This analysis of the Civil Aviation Authority's data is misleading as it ignores important context - context which is directly referenced by the CAA in the notes accompanying the research and in the research itself. Punctuality is affected by factors that are outside of an airport’s control.

‘The two most significant factors contributing to delays in the last year have been industrial action affecting air traffic control in Europe, and the weather. These were exacerbated by airspace restrictions above conflict zones meaning airports with significant long-haul networks, like Manchester, were more significantly affected than others.

‘As an industry we are working collectively to achieve the best possible on-time departure rates, while protecting flight schedules and avoiding the need for cancellations’

Every major UK airports ranked by average flight delay time in the last year 

• Manchester Airport - 7.73 percent of departures delayed by over 60 minutes
• Birmingham - 7.16 percent
• Bournemouth - 6.99 percent
• Southampton Airport - 6.94 percent
• London Stansted - 6.73 percent
• Edinburgh - 6.51 percent
• Belfast International - 6.01 percent
• Leeds Bradford - 5.98 percent
• Bristol - 5.65 percent 
• London Luton - 5.59 percent
• London Gatwick - 5.58 percent
• East Midlands - 5.34 percent
• Belfast City - 5.17 percent
• Glasgow - 4.86 percent
• Liverpool - 4.65 percent
• Newcastle - 4.55 percent
• London City - 4.38 percent
• Aberdeen - 4.07 percent
• London Heathrow - 3.89 percent
• Cardiff - 3.60 percent

In happier news, this hotel in Manchester has been deemed the best budget hotel in the UK. 

Plus: Why Underbanks and Central Stockport is one of the UK’s coolest neighbourhoods for 2026.

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