British Airways, Ryanair and easyJet suffer same problem as odds of big flight delays revealed

The worst offending airlines for delays have been revealed amid an industry-wide slipping of standards.

Take-offs within 15 minutes of planned departure times are down significantly pre-Covid compared to now for almost all major airlines flying through UK airspace, according to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

There are several factors in play, including a rise in the number of flights taking off, airspace restrictions as a result of military conflicts and issues with air traffic control (ATC) staffing.

Which? studied checked departure data for six of the biggest airlines – British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz Air – between May 2024 and April 2025. They show that all of the airlines were less punctual now than before the pandemic in 2019.

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Out of the six big UK airlines, Tui was the worst for punctuality according to the analysis, with the lowest average percentage of on-time departures. Back in 2019, an average of 67.2 per cent of Tui’s departures were on time, but by 2024–25, that had slipped to 59.2 per cent.

Second-worst for punctuality for the time period Which? looked at was Wizz Air. Its average on-time rate was already as low as 66.8 per cent back in 2019, and by 2023 it had plummeted to 55.6 per cent. In 2024–25 it now has fewer delays with 66 per cent, almost back to its pre-pandemic level.

It’s a similar story for Ryanair, whose average on-time departures were at 77.8 per cent in 2019 but fell to 63 per cent by 2022, only recovering to 66.5 per cent by 2024–25.

easyJet’s punctuality was 70.6 per cent in 2019 but dropped to 67.8 per cent in 2024–25, while the CAA data also showed a decline in Jet2’s punctuality. In 2019 departures punctuality was 81.8 per cent, and in 2024–25 was 68 per cent.

British Airways’ punctuality was at 71.5 per cent in 2019, and as high as 75.8 per cent the year before. By 2024–25 it had fallen to 68.7 per cent.

Some airlines are blaming air traffic control (ATC) for these delays. In May, Ryanair launched a website called ‘Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight’, along with a ‘League of Delays’ claiming to expose the worst ATCs across Europe for delays ‘due to mismanagement and staff shortages from January to May 2025’.

Eurocontrol, which speaks for the European network of air traffic controllers, admitted that in some parts of the network, the number of ATC officers is 10–20 per cent lower than would be needed to manage the demand.

The UK’s own ATC body, NATS (formerly known as National Air Traffic Services), said that it is "fully staffed and operating normally".

Any other air traffic control delays are only exacerbated by other factors at play. Some parts of the airspace, through which major airlines fly, are closed off for military or geopolitical reasons.

Eurocontrol has said that the crisis in the Middle East has led to traffic becoming unevenly spread – after already losing 20 per cent of airspace following the war in Ukraine. Those complexities add to an already expanding ATC workload. Airport capacity is another issue.

And while delays are worsening, airlines are putting on record numbers of flights. Although Ryanair hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels of punctuality, it scheduled 162,411 flights in 2024, according to CAA data – 24,192 more than in 2019. Wizz Air put on 29,325 flights in 2024, up 3,534 from the 25,791 it flew in 2019.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “easyJet always does all possible to get our customers to their destinations on time and minimise any delays despite flying in some of the most congested airspace in the world.”

A spokesperson for Tui said: “Punctuality is super important to us and has highest priority but there is one topic even more important: to operate each and every flight and to not cancel any flight. That’s what we do at TUI because we have holidaymakers onboard which we want to fly to their destination and also back.

“So, sometimes we have flights delayed by a couple of hours because we need to get a replacement aircraft ready. But for guests the good news is: their flight isn’t cancelled and they can still fly. Other airlines have or use the possibility to cancel flights which then would also not be part of the delay statistics anymore.

“And, one important point: within our overall fleet of 130 airplanes we have about 11 spare airplanes – the highest number we ever had and which helps us to keep a network alive without cancellations.

“So yes we want to be more punctual but we also keep our credo to never cancel, which is the even more important topic for our holiday guests.”

A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “At Wizz Air, every minute matters, and that's why we are committed to ensuring our customers reach their destinations as smoothly and as promptly as possible. Some delays are outside of our control, and we do whatever we can to avoid cancellations. Our completion rate (meaning completing the flights we schedule) was one of the best in the entire industry in 2024 at 99.4% – and that has increased to 99.9% for flights from the UK between January and April this year. While we know delays are frustrating and we always try our best to avoid them, we would rather delay than cancel a flight, as we know how important it is for our passengers to reach their destinations.

“Our on-time performance (flights arriving when they are scheduled to) continues to improve. From 2022 to 2024, our on-time performance for flights from the UK improved by more than 20%. We were also named the UK’s second-most punctual airline in Cirium’s 2024 On-Time Performance Review, achieving a 70.54% on-time arrival record. The percentage of delayed flights is also decreasing year-on-year. In particular, longer delays are a rare occurrence, with just 1% of flights from the UK in 2025* delayed for three hours or more.

“The facts speak for themselves, and this progress reflects the effort and investment we have made in improving our service, which is a daily focus for us. But we know there is more work to be done. Punctuality is a key priority of our Customer First Compass – a £12 billion framework to ensure we can deliver the best possible service for our customers. As part of this, we are enhancing the resilience of our operations to minimise cancellations, reduce delays and provide fast solutions in the event of a disruption.”

British Airways and Ryanair did not comment.