CHARTER AIRLINES in the UK, faced with much more competition from the so-called budget airlines, have been doing very well in terms of punctuality. During the summer of 2002 the number of aircraft departing or arriving more than an hour late was halved. The figures, from the Air Transport Users Council, include foreign carriers operating in and out of major UK airports. They show that the average delay last year was 23.7 minutes compared to 35.6 minutes in the summer of 2001. Top of the improved league table last year was UK charter airline JMC, now Thomas Cook Airlines. JMC also reduced its average flight delay times from over 33 minutes to under 13 minutes (see also Thomas Cook). http://www.auc.org.uk