 Airline performance varied widely |
British travellers endured rising delays on charter flights last summer, figures suggest. Nearly one in 10 charter flights were delayed by more than an hour, the Air Transport Users' Council (AUC) said.
Some carriers ran more than 20% of their flights more than an hour late, punctuality figures for April-to -October 2004 show.
New European rules offer air passengers compensation for travel delays which occured after 17 February 2005.
 | TOP FIVE CHARTER AIRLINES FOR PUNCTUALITY Iberworld Britannia Airways European Air Charter First Choice Thomas Cook Airlines |
Between April and October 2004, 9.3% of all charter flights leaving leading UK airports were delayed, compared with 7.8% in the same period the previous year.
The average delay endured by air passengers was 23.4 minutes, up from 19.7 minutes in 2003.
Later and later...
According to the AUC, 24.8% of flights run by BMI were more than one hour late.
The worst-performing airline was Air Atlanta Europe, with 41.2% of its flights more than an hour late.
In contrast, Spanish charter airline Iberworld was the top performer, with just 1% of its flights delayed by more than an hour.
Britannia Airways was the only major UK charter carrier to improve punctuality during the summer of 2004.
In summer 2003, 5% of its flights were more than an hour late, compared with 2% in 2004.
AUC said the overall drop in performance was disappointing, as most airlines had made significant improvements in punctuality since 2000.
"We are sad to report that only one of the six major UK charter carriers, Britannia Airways, improved its punctuality performance in the summer season 2004 compared to 2003," said AUC chairman Tina Tietjen.
"This is particularly disappointing considering the general year-on-year improvement that we had seen in charter airlines' performance since the summer season of 2000."
More legroom please
However, many passengers were happy with charter flights, suggested a separate survey by Holiday Which? of its 27,000 readers.
Scheduled carrier Singapore Airlines topped the list overall, with 82% of customers saying they would recommend it.
Chartered carrier Palmair - which operates out of Bournemouth airport - came second, with 78% of customers saying they would recommend it.
However, two in five of all charter flight passengers were unhappy with legroom.
Less than a fifth of all passengers surveyed - both charter and scheduled - were "very satisfied" with airline food.
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This is particularly disappointing
