Two London airports have been ranked among the worst in the UK for Easter flight delays – with almost a third of flights taking off late

Save

Share

Sam Barker

 –  Staff Writer

 ·  31 March, 2026

13 Of The Most Wonderful Things To Do In Wimbledon

Fantastically fun things to do in London this weekend (April 10-12)

Few things are more exciting and anticipated than a trip abroad. Not much beats travelling to new places to see exciting sights and chow down on delicious food – or just lounge on a sandy beach. But then, few things are worse in life than air travel – especially when your flight gets delayed. And if you’re travelling out of London this Easter, you might want to avoid two particular London airports, which were recently ranked among the worst in the UK for Easter flight delays.

A recent study* looked at flight data for April between 2022-2025 to determine which airports had the most delays, tallying up flights with delays of 15 minutes or more. Data from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), encompassing over 650,000 flights across 24 UK airports, revealed that two London airports were among the worst. London’s Stansted and Luton airports came in at joint third for the worst Easter flight delays. At both airports, almost a third of flights were delayed over the Easter period.

However, we’re not the worst! Two UK airports flew to the top of the list, with even more frequent delays. Taking the crown for the worst Easter flight delays in the UK was Birmingham. And close behind in second place was Manchester.

Worst airports for Easter flight delays

If you’re flying somewhere this April, you might want to try to avoid these airports. That’s because they had the most Easter flight delays in April of 2022-2025.

1. Birmingham – 29.9% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
2. Manchester – 29.8% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
3. Stansted – 29.7% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes (joint 3rd)
4. Luton – 29.7% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes (joint 3rd)
5. Edinburgh – 29.2% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
6. Bristol – 29% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes

Best airports for Easter flight delays

Wondering which airports had the least delays? These UK airports saw flights taking off on time most frequently:

1. Belfast City – 17.6% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
2. East Midlands – 17.8% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
3. London City – 18.4% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
4. Exeter – 19.6% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes
5. Glasgow – 19.9% of flights delayed more than 15 minutes

In most cases, the smaller airports had fewer delays than the large ones.

*Study conducted by Locals Insider.