It’s not a trick question, and the answer is not “At the airport.”
The Telegraph (UK) has collected delay figures for summer flights involving popular holiday destinations, and fond that Portugal had the worst record last year, with 51 percent of flights to the UK between June 1 and August 31 were delayed or cancelled. Runners-up (or is it laggers-behind?) included France (45%), Spain (37%) and Turkey (33%). On the other end, Greek flights were down at 14% and Egypt 19%.
Most of the data used came from a company that specializes in assisting passengers with compensation for delays. The study used tighter criteria than used by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority. It also looked at individual airport data, and found that Istanbul’s two airports, and Nice, France, had the worst results, with 64% of inbound flights delayed or cancelled; Lisbon hit 61%.
UK airports had problems, too: 54% at Heathrow, 40% at Gatwick and 29% for Manchester.
MORE at the Telegraph’s site.
Not that you’d make your vacation decision solely on those numbers—but you’d certainly take them into consideration in planning any connecting flights or ensuring you’re home in time to go back to work.
Crowded runway at Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul Photo: Habib M’henni / Wikimedia
