# Worst UK airlines for delays in 2025: CAA data ranked

Source: https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/airline-delay-rankings/

> CAA 2025 data: SAS on time on 84.6% of flights, Air India on 52.5%. BA group 76.7%, easyJet Europe group 72.5%, Ryanair group 70.1%. Table and CSV.

# UK airline delay rankings 2025: on time, average delay and cancellations (CAA data)

SAS had the highest share of flights on time at UK airports in 2025, 84.6%, and Air India the lowest, 52.5%, of the 50 airlines in the UK Civil Aviation Authority's annual punctuality table. Among the largest UK carriers, British Airways group had 76.7% of flights on time; easyJet Europe group had 72.5%; Ryanair group had 70.1%. Across all flights at the 25 UK airports the CAA reports on, 72.7% were on time. The CAA counts a flight as on time when it is early or up to 15 minutes late, and a cancelled flight as not on time.

## Which UK airlines were on time most and least often in 2025?

84.6% of SAS flights were on time in 2025, the highest share among the 50 airlines in the CAA's annual table, and 52.5% of Air India flights, the lowest. The CAA counts a flight as on time when it leaves or arrives early or up to 15 minutes late, and counts cancelled flights as not on time.

**Top 10 UK airlines by share of flights on time, 2025 (CAA table of 50)**

| On-time rank | Airline (as in the CAA table) | On time | Average delay (min) | Cancelled | Flights |
|--:|:--|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| 1 | [SAS](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/sas/) | 84.6% | 7.4 | 1.2% | 13,040 |
| 2 | [JetBlue](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/jetblue/) | 82.6% | 11.3 | 0.7% | 3,156 |
| 3 | [Virgin group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/virgin-atlantic/) | 81.4% | 10.2 | 1.4% | 25,758 |
| 4 | Air China | 81.2% | 10.6 | 0.3% | 2,952 |
| 5 | [Etihad Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/etihad-airways/) | 81.0% | 11.1 | 0.3% | 4,182 |
| 6 | [Icelandair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/icelandair/) | 80.9% | 9.8 | 1.2% | 3,755 |
| 7 | [ITA Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/ita-airways/) | 80.5% | 9.1 | 0.4% | 4,517 |
| 8 | [Austrian Airlines](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/austrian-airlines/) | 80.2% | 9.6 | 0.7% | 3,796 |
| 9 | [Qatar Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/qatar-airways/) | 79.4% | 11.3 | 0.4% | 11,782 |
| 10 | [Iberia](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/iberia/) | 79.3% | 10.0 | 0.7% | 5,814 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 annual punctuality statistics (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-10-12.

**Bottom 10 UK airlines by share of flights on time, 2025 (CAA table of 50)**

| On-time rank | Airline (as in the CAA table) | On time | Average delay (min) | Cancelled | Flights |
|--:|:--|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| 41 | SunExpress | 66.9% | 15.7 | 0.3% | 9,969 |
| 42 | [Swiss](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/swiss/) | 66.8% | 14.3 | 1.4% | 14,387 |
| 43 | Blue Islands | 65.4% | 25.1 | 4.2% | 10,835 |
| 44 | [Brussels Airlines](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/brussels-airlines/) | 65.0% | 15.7 | 2.6% | 4,752 |
| 45 | [Lufthansa City Airlines](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/lufthansa/) | 65.0% | 16.1 | 1.2% | 2,794 |
| 46 | Eastern Airways | 64.6% | 20.1 | 12.4% | 4,214 |
| 47 | [EgyptAir](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/egyptair/) | 62.3% | 19.3 | 0.5% | 2,907 |
| 48 | [TUI Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/tui-airways/) | 59.2% | 23.4 | 0.1% | 61,712 |
| 49 | [TAP Air Portugal](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/tap-air-portugal/) | 57.2% | 20.8 | 1.3% | 7,737 |
| 50 | [Air India](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/air-india/) | 52.5% | 32.8 | 2.4% | 6,164 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 annual punctuality statistics (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-10-12.

Every figure is the CAA's own, rounded to one decimal place. Ranks follow the unrounded share. Brussels Airlines (65.046%) therefore sits above Lufthansa City Airlines (65.032%) although both show 65.0%. The top ten run from 79.3% to 84.6% on time and the bottom ten from 52.5% to 66.9%; first and fiftieth are 32.1 points apart. Rows named "group" are as grouped in the CAA's table. The CAA publishes no list of the companies inside a group, so any membership we show is our own reconciliation of its files. The figures cover flights at the 25 UK reporting airports only, scheduled and charter combined, and a flight between two of those airports is counted at both ends. All 50 rows are in the [CSV download](https://airtravelrights.com/data/csv/uk-airline-punctuality-2025.csv).

## How did the big UK carriers compare?

76.7% of British Airways group flights were on time in 2025, against 72.5% for easyJet Europe group and 70.1% for Ryanair group. These three have the most flights in the CAA table: easyJet Europe group 393,939, British Airways group 355,425 and Ryanair group 337,671. BA group is 4.2 points ahead of easyJet; easyJet is 2.4 ahead of Ryanair.

**Eight large UK carriers, 2025 (CAA table of 50)**

| On-time rank | Airline (as in the CAA table) | On time | Average delay (min) | Cancelled | Flights |
|--:|:--|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| 3 | [Virgin group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/virgin-atlantic/) | 81.4% | 10.2 | 1.4% | 25,758 |
| 12 | [Loganair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/loganair/) | 78.5% | 11.7 | 3.1% | 57,139 |
| 14 | [Wizz Air group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/wizz-air/) | 76.8% | 14.7 | 0.3% | 58,095 |
| 15 | [British Airways group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/british-airways/) | 76.7% | 12.6 | 1.2% | 355,425 |
| 31 | [easyJet Europe group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/easyjet/) | 72.5% | 15.1 | 0.8% | 393,939 |
| 36 | [Ryanair group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/ryanair/) | 70.1% | 16.5 | 0.3% | 337,671 |
| 40 | [Jet2](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/jet2/) | 67.4% | 18.3 | 0.2% | 123,135 |
| 48 | [TUI Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/tui-airways/) | 59.2% | 23.4 | 0.1% | 61,712 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 annual punctuality statistics (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-10-12.

Wizz Air group (76.8%) ranks 14th and British Airways group (76.7%) 15th, 0.1 points apart. None of the three largest carriers by flights ranks higher than 15th. Jet2 (67.4%) and TUI Airways (59.2%) sit below the 72.7% all-airport figure; Virgin group (81.4%) and Loganair (78.5%) sit above it. Loganair has the highest cancellation share of the eight: 3.1%. TUI Airways flies charter as well as scheduled services; the CAA records a sub-charter flight against the airline commercially responsible for it, so TUI's figure covers both. The CAA data records when flights left and arrived, not why any of them ran late, and this page makes no claim about causes.

## Which airlines had the longest and shortest average delay?

32.8 minutes is Air India's average delay in 2025, the longest of the 50 airlines in the CAA table; SAS has the shortest at 7.4 minutes. The all-airport average is 15.1 minutes. The CAA averages over the flights it matched to a schedule, so cancelled flights do not enter it.

**Five longest average delays, 2025 (CAA table of 50)**

| On-time rank | Airline (as in the CAA table) | Average delay (min) | On time | Flights |
|--:|:--|--:|--:|--:|
| 50 | [Air India](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/air-india/) | 32.8 | 52.5% | 6,164 |
| 43 | Blue Islands | 25.1 | 65.4% | 10,835 |
| 48 | [TUI Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/tui-airways/) | 23.4 | 59.2% | 61,712 |
| 26 | [American Airlines](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/american-airlines/) | 22.3 | 73.8% | 16,116 |
| 49 | [TAP Air Portugal](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/tap-air-portugal/) | 20.8 | 57.2% | 7,737 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 annual punctuality statistics (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-10-12.

**Five shortest average delays, 2025 (CAA table of 50)**

| On-time rank | Airline (as in the CAA table) | Average delay (min) | On time | Flights |
|--:|:--|--:|--:|--:|
| 1 | [SAS](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/sas/) | 7.4 | 84.6% | 13,040 |
| 7 | [ITA Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/ita-airways/) | 9.1 | 80.5% | 4,517 |
| 8 | [Austrian Airlines](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/austrian-airlines/) | 9.6 | 80.2% | 3,796 |
| 11 | [Norwegian Air group](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/norwegian/) | 9.7 | 79.2% | 6,604 |
| 6 | [Icelandair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/icelandair/) | 9.8 | 80.9% | 3,755 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 annual punctuality statistics (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-10-12.

Ryanair group averages 16.5 minutes, easyJet Europe group 15.1 and British Airways group 12.6. The five shortest averages all belong to airlines with fewer than 14,000 flights in the table, so each rests on a smaller sample than the big UK carriers' figures. A long average and a low on-time share usually go together here, but not always: American Airlines averages 22.3 minutes yet has 73.8% of flights on time, above the all-airport 72.7%. A few very late flights raise an average without moving the on-time share, which counts every flight more than 15 minutes late the same way.

## Which airlines cancelled the most flights?

12.4% of Eastern Airways flights were cancelled in 2025, the highest share in the CAA table; Finnair follows at 5.9%. The all-airport figure is 1.0%. The CAA defines a cancellation as "the non-operation of a previously planned flight, announced less than 24 hours before or after its scheduled departure time".

**Five highest cancellation shares, 2025 (CAA table of 50)**

| On-time rank | Airline (as in the CAA table) | Cancelled | On time | Flights |
|--:|:--|--:|--:|--:|
| 46 | Eastern Airways | 12.4% | 64.6% | 4,214 |
| 32 | [Finnair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/finnair/) | 5.9% | 72.3% | 6,059 |
| 43 | Blue Islands | 4.2% | 65.4% | 10,835 |
| 27 | Aurigny | 3.3% | 73.8% | 11,102 |
| 12 | [Loganair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/loganair/) | 3.1% | 78.5% | 57,139 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 annual punctuality statistics (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-10-12.

Five of the 50 airlines cancelled more than 3.0% of their flights; the other 45 cancelled less. The lowest shares were TUI Airways at 0.1%, Jet2 at 0.2% and SunExpress at 0.3%. A flight called off earlier than 24 hours before departure is not counted as a cancellation here. Shares are of all flights, matched or not. Because a flight between two reporting airports is counted at both ends, domestic carriers such as Loganair show more flights than they operated; read their figures as shares, not totals. Eastern Airways is the outlier. Its 12.4% rests on 4,214 flights; Ryanair group's 0.3% rests on 337,671.

## How do complaints per million passengers compare for the same airlines?

629 complaints per million passengers is Wizz Air's rate for April 2025 to March 2026, the highest among the five airlines below that sit with AviationADR; Ryanair has 283, TUI Airways 259, easyJet 154 and Virgin Atlantic 112. The CAA calls the figure "an indicative estimated value only".

**Complaints per million passengers, FY26, large UK carriers (CAA complaints data)**

| Airline (as on the CAA sheet) | Handled by | Per million passengers | Total cases opened |
|:--|:--|--:|--:|
| [Wizz Air](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/wizz-air/) | AviationADR | 629 | 7,436 |
| [Ryanair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/ryanair/) | AviationADR | 283 | 15,863 |
| [TUI Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/tui-airways/) | AviationADR | 259 | 3,104 |
| [easyJet](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/easyjet/) | AviationADR | 154 | 7,982 |
| [Virgin Atlantic](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/virgin-atlantic/) | AviationADR | 112 | 654 |
| [British Airways](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/british-airways/) | CEDR | 155 | 7,349 |
| [Loganair](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/loganair/) | PACT | 85 | 117 |
| [Jet2](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/jet2/) | PACT | 22 | 455 |

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, Passenger Complaints Data FY26 (April 2025 to March 2026), "Data Correct as of: 03/06/2026" (caa.co.uk), checked 2026-09-22.

The periods differ. Punctuality covers calendar 2025 and complaints cover April 2025 to March 2026, so the two share nine months, not twelve. Compare rates only inside one handling body: British Airways is the only airline here with CEDR, so its 155 is not ranked against the AviationADR airlines. AviationADR, CEDR and the CAA's PACT team record the complaints that reached them, not every complaint made to an airline and not delays. The CAA's page calls the per-million metric CDRL/CEDR only, yet its sheet also fills it for PACT rows, so read the Loganair and Jet2 figures with caution. The full method and 27 airlines are on the [airline complaints page](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/airline-complaints/).

## Does a low ranking mean you are owed compensation?

3 hours or more late at the final destination is the UK261 test for delay compensation, and no row in this table measures it. The right falls away when extraordinary circumstances caused the delay and all reasonable measures could not avoid it (articles 6(3) and 2(o)).

The CAA's 15-minute band is a reporting line. It has no legal effect. Its clock also runs at gate times at the UK reporting airport, for departures and arrivals alike, so a departure figure is not the delay at the destination. A top-ranked airline can still owe compensation for one flight. A bottom-ranked airline can owe nothing for another, and the table cannot tell you which is which for your journey.

What decides a claim is the facts of your own flight: the scheduled and actual arrival time, the route and whether extraordinary circumstances applied. Read [UK261 delay compensation](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/flight-delay-compensation/) for the test and [extraordinary circumstances](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/extraordinary-circumstances/) for the defence; the [compensation calculator](https://airtravelrights.com/compensation-calculator/) checks one flight against both. Other UK rights are on the [UK261 hub](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/).

## How was this ranking built?

2025 means 1 January to 31 December 2025, the latest full year the CAA publishes as a single airline-level file (checked 12 October 2026). The headline tables are the CAA's own "On Time Performance Table by Airline - Top 50". We transcribed each row. We did not recompute it. Nothing is rescaled.

The CAA covers flights at 25 UK reporting airports, scheduled and charter combined, so an airline's figure covers its UK flights only, not its network. Flights between two reporting airports are counted twice. The CAA's Full Analysis file leaves out operators that have not consented to publication, 57 flights in 2025. "On time" is the CAA's definition throughout: more than 15 minutes early, 15 minutes early to 1 minute early, and 0 to 15 minutes late. The 72.7% all-airport figure is the CAA's "All Airports" total on the same definition. We checked the 50 rows against our own sum of the CAA's 7,655-row Full Analysis file: flight counts matched exactly and percentages agreed to within 0.00011 points. A [second CSV](https://airtravelrights.com/data/csv/uk-airline-punctuality.csv) lists the 68 operating companies with at least 2,000 matched flights. Our checking method is on [how we verify](https://airtravelrights.com/how-we-verify/); punctuality by airport is on the [airports hub](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/), and US figures are on [US airline delay rankings](https://airtravelrights.com/us-dot/airline-delay-rankings/).

## FAQ

### Which airline has the worst record for delays in the UK?

52.5% of Air India's 6,164 flights at UK reporting airports in 2025 were on time and its average delay was 32.8 minutes, both the weakest in the CAA's table of 50. Of the three groups with over 300,000 flights, Ryanair group had the lowest on-time share, 70.1%. The figures record punctuality, not the cause of any delay.

### Which UK airport has the worst flight delays?

This page ranks airlines, not airports. The CAA publishes a separate on-time table for each of its 25 reporting airports, and the [airport pages](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/) on this site carry it. An airport figure and an airline figure measure different sets of flights, so do not read one from the other.

### Which airline gets the most complaints in the UK?

Wizz Air had the highest rate among the five AviationADR airlines in the table: 629 complaints per million passengers in FY26. Ryanair had the most cases, 15,863; raw totals largely follow airline size. The CAA calls the per-million figure indicative only, so rank only inside one handling body.

### Does a delayed airline have to pay compensation?

Not because of its ranking. Under UK261 the question is whether your flight reached its final destination three hours or more late and whether extraordinary circumstances caused the delay. The CAA's 15-minute on-time band has no legal effect on a claim.

## Sources

- Civil Aviation Authority, Punctuality statistics 2025: On Time Performance Table by Airline (Top 50) and Annual Full Analysis - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/flight-punctuality/uk-flight-punctuality-statistics/2025/), checked 2026-10-12.
- Civil Aviation Authority, Punctuality statistics notes (definitions) - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/flight-punctuality/uk-flight-punctuality-statistics-notes/), checked 2026-10-12.
- Civil Aviation Authority, Passenger Complaints Data FY26 - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/passenger-complaints/2026/), checked 2026-09-22.
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it forms part of UK law, art. 2(o) and art. 6 - [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/6), checked 2026-09-15.

*This page reports published punctuality statistics and is not legal advice; it does not tell you whether your own flight qualifies for compensation.*