Love it or hate it, a third runway at London Heathrow will make a difference
Flight delays at the big 4 European airports
Interestingly, London Heathrow had the highest number of incidents of delays or cancellations over 30 minutes between 2012 – 2014. Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt Airports, both of which deal with a similar number of flights to London Heathrow per year, had a much better record of delays averaging between them a 6.5% and 7% of incidents. London Gatwick which handles the least amount of flights out of the group averaged a 17% – 22% of delays. London Heathrow had the highest, maintaining an average of almost a quarter of the flights delayed.
A third runway will a difference
Heathrow is currently running at 99% capacity and the reason that it has such a high percentage of delays compared to its European counterparts is because it’s functioning on two runways. Frankfurt and Amsterdam have 4 and 5 respectively. The proposed third runway at Heathrow will make a huge difference to air passengers, lessening the chance of delay and the need to claim flight delay compensation, which we at EUclaim believe is a very positive step.
And now for the data
Photo: Flickr.com