London Heathrow has been branded the worst airport in Europe yet again – this time by the Association of European Airlines (AEA).
Collating data from the first quarter of 2007, the industry group found that almost half of all flights arriving at or departing from the global hub were at least 15 minutes late.
Its damming assessment follows a report from the Civil Aviation Authority last month which found that 44 per cent of all Heathrow flights are delayed – on average by 25 minutes.
After being ranked bottom in AEA’s list of 27 European airports, the gateway has now been among the poorest five performers in the industry report for 16 successive quarters.
Both the airport and British Airways have hit back at the findings, however, insisting that record-high passenger numbers are to blame and reiterating their calls for a third runway.
“Heathrow is the world’s most congested two runway airport and operates at maximum capacity every day,” a BA spokesman said.
“Because of the lack of spare runway and air traffic control capacity at Heathrow, there is no slack if minor disruptive incidents occur and little opportunity to avoid knock-on delays for the rest of the day.”
