Gatwick improves punctuality in first quarter

The Association of European Airlines (AEA) has released figures covering its members' punctuality in the first quarter of 2008, showing improving performance at Gatwick Airport.

Some 19.5 per cent of departures from Gatwick suffered delays of 15 minutes or more, according to the figures, meaning that the London airport was not far behind the best performer, Munich airport, which saw 17.6 per cent of its flights delayed.

Gatwick was one of the top ten airports of 28 surveyed by the AEA.

The London airport managed to reduce its average departure delays from 36.4 minutes to 30.2, while the average arrival hold-up was cut from 40.2 minutes to 31.9.

It was not all good news for airport operator BAA, however, as Heathrow Airport was found to be the worst performer in terms of typical delays.

A spokesman for BAA said the figures were representative of the fact that Heathrow is severely congested and needs a new runway.