Wizz Air named UK’s worst airline for delays last summer

Two thirds of its flights in and out of Britain were late by 15 minutes or more

Passengers flying with Wizz Air in and out of the UK last summer were delayed by nearly an hour on average. Reuters

Passengers flying with Wizz Air in and out of the UK faced the worst delays last summer, data from the national Civil Aviation Authority indicates.

Two thirds of the airline's flights were delayed by 15 minutes or longer.

And the Hungary-based airline had the longest average delay among all its rivals, at 55 minutes, according to research based on data from more than 385,000 flights from June to August.

Wizz Air made more than 15,000 flights in and out of Britain in that period and 10,431 of those were at least 15 minutes late.

The second-highest percentage of delays was for TUI Airways, according to the study commissioned by Forbes Advisor.

TUI made almost 25,000 flights last summer, of which slightly more than 15,000 — or 61 per cent — were delayed by at least 15 minutes.

The data found Lufthansa was third, with about half of its flights to and from the UK suffering from delays. The average delay was 23 minutes.

Passengers travelling on Air Portugal were fourth most likely to be delayed. It made more than 2,100 flights to and from the UK over the three-month period and nearly half were late, with the average delay of 25 minutes.

Low-cost airlines including Wizz Air posted robust financial results at the start of this year on the back of strong bookings.

Analysts have said customers are protecting their holidays despite rising inflation and recession fears.