Top 10 European airports with the most delays

It remains difficult in recent times to avoid being bombarded with images and videos of endless queues and hordes of disgruntled passengers at airports across the world. The unpredictability of the current world brings with it a jaded expectation that any flight one might wish to take will either be delayed or cancelled entirely. While airlines can be truly terrible regarding delays and cancellations, airports are equally as guilty for creating this miserable experience

For the first two weeks of July 2022, A Canadian company, Hopper, which specializes in data analysis for travel, has tracked all delays and cancellations for European airports. Over this period, actual arrival and departure times were compared to those of scheduled flights. In their investigation, a flight is considered on-time if the difference between a scheduled take-off or landing and the actual time it departs or arrives at the gate is no more than 15 minutes.

While every passenger may believe their local airport is the worst offender for delayed flights, unless they live nearby one of these 10 worst airports, then their circumstance could be much worse.

10th place: London-Gatwick (LGW), United Kingdom

At the UK’s second busiest airport, 59 percent of all flights were delayed and 1.4 percent were cancelled.

9th place: Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE), France

While Nice’s location directly on the French Mediterranean coast is certainly beautiful, its punctuality record is not.60 percent of all flights at the airport were delayed and 3.4 percent of the flights were cancelled.

8th place: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), Netherlands

At the Netherland’s busiest airport (and fourth busiest in Europe), 61 percent of flights were late, while 5.2 percent were cancelled all together.

7th place: Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), France

At the Paris’s main airport (and the third largest in Europe), 62 percent of all flights were delayed and 3.1 percent of flights were cancelled.

6th place: Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport (BUD), Hungary

At Hungary’s main international airport, there was a delay rate of 65 percent, and 2.1 percent of all flights cancelled.

5th place: Aeroporto Humberto Delgado Lisboa (LIS), Portugal

At Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, 65 percent of all flights were delayed, and 4.8 percent of flights were cancelled.

4th place: London Luton Airport (LTN), UK

While calling this a ‘London’ airport is a slight stretch, it’s no match for its abysmal punctuality rate of 66 percent flights being delayed and 2.7 percent of departures having to be cancelled.

3rd place: Eindhoven Airport (EIN), Netherlands

Starting off the Top 3 ‘winners’, Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands had 67 percent of its flights delayed and 1.8 percent were cancelled.

2nd place: Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Germany

At Germany’s largest airport, 68 percent of all flights were delayed and 7.8 percent of flights were cancelled (the highest on this list).

1st place: Brussels-Zaventem Airport (BRU), Belgium

The dishonourable record holder for tardiness was Brussels Airport, where an astonishingly high 72 percent of all flights were delayed and 2.5 percent of flights were cancelled.