Flight delays have become the norm in post-pandemic Britain

Flight disruption has become a feature of post-pandemic travel in the UK, according to new data which illustrates how the aviation industry has struggled to deliver consistent performance since mass travel restarted. Around 32% of flights departing from UK airports were cancelled or delayed in the first five months of the year, according to Financial Times analysis of figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The level was higher than in the two years leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, where it at stood at 25% and 22% in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The figures cover the performance of flights from 26 airports that the aviation sector regulator tracks. The scale of the problem has not been as significant as last summer, when parts of the industry buckled owing to staff shortages and more than 50% of flights were cancelled or delayed. But the data instead shows that heightened disruption — defined as a flight cancelled or delayed by over 16 minutes — has become a near constant theme of the industry’s recovery. The trend is apparent at terminals across the country. Delays and cancellations were higher in the first five months of 2022 and 2023 than in 2019 at each of the UK’s eight largest airports. Moreover, delays have persisted despite departures not yet rebounding to 2019 levels. In May, CAA data captured 78,149 scheduled flights departing UK airports. In the same period of 2019, the figure was 90,452. Last year, airlines and airports suffered from staffing problems as the industry struggled to get back on its feet after Covid-era travel restrictions were lifted.<br/>