British Airways has been named as the worst airline for cancelling flights so far in 2022, grounding 12 times more planes than Ryanair a new study shows.
The United Kingdom's flag air provider has been named the worst performing across the entire country, with 3.5 per cent of flights overall grounded up to June this year.
Irish firm Ryanair on the other hand was named the best-performing major airline worldwide - with just 0.3 per cent of flights not taking off in the same timeframe - according to figures from air travel intelligence company OAG reported by Sky
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That means that if you flew in the first half of the year, you would be 12 times more likely to have a flight cancelled by BA than you would by Ryanair. The summer figures are also unlikely to show a significant improvement for British Airways - who have recently cancelled 10,000 more flights until the end of October.
The Mirror reports that on a global scale, China Eastern has been by far the worst affected - largely due to the mammoth lockdown which has been rolling on in its base of Shanghai since March. A BA spokesperson says that some cancellations were due to major storms in February, with an IT fault at the end of March adding to the figures.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Covid measures in Asia also haven't helped the situation.
In recent weeks, it has grounded more flights from London's Heathrow - which has stripped back the number of available departures due to issues in staffing. However, OAG show that Gatwick - also in London - has had more cancellations this year than other UK airport.
More than 3% of all planned flight from the West London travel hub did not take off this year, compared to 0.3% of those from Stansted - the best performing UK airport. June was Gatwick's worst month this year, with one in every 14 flights from the airport cancelled during that period.
OAG figures also show that a flight in 2022 is 2.5 times more likely to be cancelled than one booked in the same timeframe of 2019. The UK has faired worse than all other major European countries too when it comes to flight cancellations - with a total of 2 per cent of flights cancelled slightly higher than Germany's similar statistics.
Further afield US, Canada, Indonesia and Turkey all cancelled more. A Gatwick Airport spokesperson said: “We regret any cancelations and disruption to our passengers. This is why the airport will carefully and gradually increase its declared capacity - starting at 825 flights a day in July and then up to 850 flights a day in August – so that airlines fly more reliable flight programmes and passengers experience a better standard of service.
“We took our action after an airport review found that a number of companies based at Gatwick are, and will continue to, operate with a severe lack of staff resources over the summer holiday period.
"If not addressed, this issue would see airport passengers continuing to experience an unreliable and potentially poor standard of service, including more queues, delays and last-minute cancellations.
“By carefully controlling and gradually increasing the maximum number of flights over time - until the end of August - the airport aims to help both its airlines and their ground handling companies improve the service they provide by reducing the number of flights they need to manage.
"In particular, this will benefit ground handling companies, who are employed by the airlines and are responsible for managing check in areas, turning aircraft round on the airfield ready for departure, and loading and delivering baggage back to passengers.”
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