A British Airways flight or one from Gatwick airport are where passengers have had their journeys scrapped most often this year.
That conclusion comes from an analysis of data from OAG, which receives light intelligence from airlines, government agencies and other sources.
Flights from Gatwick are ten times more likely to have been cancelled this year than Stansted, according to an analysis of the numbers carried out by Sky News. with 3% of flights from London’s second airport scrapped compared to 0.3% at its rival.
June was especially poor at Gatwick, said the report, with one in 14 flights cancelled.
British Airways, owned by IAG, meanwhile was the airline most affected, scrapping 3.5% of flights or twelve times as many as Ryanair, which has cancelled less than any other major carrier worldwide, according to the OAG.
Michael O’ Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said it planned ahead better than rivals, while still being based in the EU has allowed it to deal better with the labour shortages that have plagued UK-based carriers since Brexit and the easing of Covid restrictions.
John Grant, chief analyst at OAG, told Sky: "When we entered COVID, airlines made a lot of people redundant. During that two-year furlough period, those people found jobs elsewhere and have not returned to the industry.
"Of those that have returned, their security policies will have expired. They need to be vetted again and go through the same process as they did two years ago.”
Shares in IAG dropped 4.5% today to 105.5p.