Scotland's most delay-prone airport revealed - but hold-ups are reducing

Flights at Scotland’s busiest airport have become more punctual despite passenger numbers growing to record levels.

Travellers departing from Edinburgh Airport were delayed by an average of 18 minutes last year, when passengers reached 16 million - more than three minutes less than in 2023.

Edinburgh Airport was rated 15th out of 29 in a survey of people's experiences of UK airports by Which? (Picture: Lisa Ferguson) | Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman

Glasgow Airport passengers suffered shorter delays, with average waits reducing from 16.5 minutes to 15 minutes.

Average delays at Aberdeen increased marginally to just over 18 minutes, according to new analysis of UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data.

Flight disruption is often caused by airlines and factors such as extreme weather rather than the airports themselves.

Some Scottish passengers will have endured longer delays at several English airports, topped by Gatwick, with average waits of 23 minutes in 2024.

However, the UK’s second busiest, which has continued to suffer from air traffic control disruption due to staff shortages, saw delays reduce from 27 minutes the previous year.

Birmingham was second worst, with an average delay of 21 minutes, followed by Manchester with 20 minutes. By contrast, it was 17 minutes at Heathrow - the UK’s busiest airport.

Which? consumer expert Lisa Webb said:“Your choice of airport shouldn’t make or break your trip, but sadly for too many travellers that is often their experience.

“Airports need to ensure they are properly prepared to handle higher volumes of passengers at key travel periods, such as summer holidays.

“With at least some level of disruption probable as we head into another busy travel season, airports’ delay records are something some travellers may well want to take into consideration, even if that involves travelling slightly further from home.”

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of independent travel agents, said: “Passengers expect and deserve not to spend hours stuck in terminals with little information or support.

“Reliable service, clear communication and efficient operations should be the standard, not the exception, and airports must take this responsibility seriously.”

Belfast City (George Best) recorded the best punctuality performance in the UK for the second year in a row, with a typical delay per flight of fewer than 12 minutes.

The analysis took into account scheduled and chartered departures from the 22 commercial UK airports with at least 1,000 outbound flights last year, with cancellations not included.

Selina Chadha, a director at the CAA, said: “The industry works hard to ensure flights are punctual, but sometimes delays occur.

“What is important to us is what airlines and airports do to minimise disruption, as well as comply with their legal obligations to look after passengers if something happens to their flight.”

An Edinburgh Airport spokesperson said: “As we’ve continually said, this is about the whole aviation network rather than just airports, and these figures indicate improvements across the many different partners.”

A spokesperson for AGS Airports, which owns Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports, said: “Aircraft delays can be caused by a number of factors including weather issues, air traffic congestion, delayed arrivals or technical issues with aircraft.

”We work with our airline partners and their handling agents to improve overall levels of efficiency.”

A spokesperson for Gatwick said: “Air traffic control restrictions in other parts of Europe have continued to impact the airport.

“Together with our airlines, we’ve put in place a robust plan…to improve on-time performance further in 2025.”

That included using a new method to separate arriving aircraft, and trialling the co-ordination of connecting jet bridges to planes remotely.