The Air Transport Users Council (AUC) published its summer 2006 charter airline delay league table and says things are getting no better, with average punctuality worse than three years ago.
Announcing the figures AUC chairman Tina Tietjen said: ”When we published our delay league table last year for summer 2005, we said we were looking for charter airlines to ”bounce back” and improve their punctuality for summer season 2006 after two years of declining punctuality. Well, we are pleased to report that they have ” just. Last summer saw a slight improvement in the overall charter airline punctuality performance compared to the year before. However charter airline passengers still suffered more, and, on average, longer, delays during the summer of 2006 than they had three years previously.”
Of the British airlines, MyTravel Airways has improved its punctuality performance for the third year running, again setting the benchmark for other carriers. Average delay was 14 minutes. Next up came up ThomsonFly at 18 minutes, and a poor third was Thomas Cook Airlines with the chance of a 30-minute wait every time you flew. Monarch slipped badly and averaged 41 minutes.
The AUC points out that about half of all delays to flights in Europe are caused by air traffic control. Statistics indicate that a significant proportion of the remaining delays are within the control of the airline. The periods covered by the analysis are the summer seasons (April-October).