Revealed: The worst-ranked airport in the UK when it comes to flight delays

Published: 00:01, 5 May 2026 | Updated: 00:01, 5 May 2026 Manchester Airport has been ranked the worst in the UK for flight delays – sparking a warning that passengers cannot book flights from there 'with any real confidence'. Departures from the country's third busiest airport were an average of 19-and-a-half minutes behind schedule in 2025, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data. That was longer than all other UK airports despite it being a 30-second improvement from the previous year. Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said the choice of airport 'shouldn't make or break your trip', but 'too many holidays got off to a terrible start last year'. He added: 'Manchester Airport has ranked last in our airport survey for four consecutive years and these new CAA figures validate why this is a particularly poor place to be stranded during delays.  'For passengers already wary of travel uncertainty, seeing such consistent underperformance makes it difficult to book with any real confidence.' Birmingham Airport had the second poorest flight punctuality last year, with an average delay of 18 minutes and 42 seconds.  And in third was Bournemouth Airport at 17 minutes and 18 seconds. Departures from Manchester Airport were an average of 19-and-a-half minutes behind schedule in 2025, according to CAA data (File image) Manchester Airport (pictured) is the UK's only two-runway airport other than Heathrow and was used by 32million passengers last year Your browser does not support iframes. Liverpool John Lennon Airport had the most punctual flights, with an average delay of nine minutes and 24 seconds.  The analysis by the Press Association took into account scheduled and chartered departures from the 23 commercial UK airports with at least 1,000 outbound flights last year. The average delay for departures was 14 minutes and 54 seconds, down from 18 minutes and 24 seconds in 2024.  Manchester is the UK's only two-runway airport other than Heathrow and was used by 32million passengers last year. A spokesman for the airport said: 'The two most significant factors contributing to delays in the last year have been industrial action affecting air traffic control in Europe and the weather.  'These were exacerbated by airspace restrictions above conflict zones, meaning airports with significant long-haul networks were more significantly affected. 'As an industry, we are working collectively to achieve the best possible on-time departure rates.' A spokesman for Bournemouth Airport said the reasons for delays are outside its control 'in the majority of cases' and it is 'one of the UK's top-ranked regional airports for passenger satisfaction'. Birmingham Airport did not reply to a request for a comment. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.