More than a third of UK flights were delayed last year, according to the Aviation Authority.
The Civil Aviation Authority said tour operators’ performance was hampered by the challenges they faced in the first half of 2022.
Only 63% of flights departed or landed in the UK within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
This was down from 75% in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
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After shedding thousands of jobs during the worst of the pandemic, many airlines, including airports, have been unable to hire new staff fast enough.
Many passengers experienced queues, delays or cancellations. Heathrow and Gatwick airports then introduced number restrictions during the summer peak season and a number of airlines reduced their flight schedules.
A spokesman for Airlines UK, the trade association for UK registered airlines, said: “The whole industry knows how important punctuality is to customers. Last year was not representative due to the late lifting of Covid restrictions which required a very steep climb.”
They added, “Since then, the entire industry has invested tremendous resources in increasing resilience for this summer.”
For the whole of 2022, UK air travel recovered to 75% of 2019 levels. 224 million passengers traveled to and from UK airports last year, triple the number the year before.
The CAA’s head of consumer affairs, Anna Bowles, said the “rebound in passenger numbers has at times been overshadowed by the challenges faced by the aviation sector in early summer 2022, when flight cancellations and delays were at an unacceptable level.”
This year, she said, the regulator expects “increased resilience and continued improved performance from airlines.”
Around 2% of all flights were cancelled, with May and June being the hardest hit.
The average delay in departures and arrivals was 22 minutes, 60% more than in 2019.
Rocio Concha from the consumer group Which? Describing the figures as “horrific” but “not surprising to anyone who has endured the widespread chaos at UK airports over the past year”, adding that the way airlines have treated many passengers is “unacceptable” may be.
Gatwick and Heathrow airport chiefs have expressed confidence that their operations will run smoothly this year.
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