UK flight cancellations and delays up, claims compensation firm

FLIGHT cancellations and delays rose in the first part of 2015, according to analysis by the compensation company, EUclaim. But the main causes appear to be those over which UK-based airlines had no control: strikes in Italy and Germany, and weather.

Bad winter weather at the start of the year, and a series of strikes led to a 20% rise in the number of cancelled flights to 5,080 over the first four months of last year. The number of delays also increased by 7% to 2,427 against 2,260 in the same period in 2014.

Monarch suffered the greatest increase in delays so far this year with passengers experiencing 64 incidents, compared with 47 in the same four-month period last year. 

easyJet saw a 19% increase, with 245 delays in the first four months, and Jet2 17%. Ryanair and Thomson Airways both saw a 6% rise in delays, and Virgin Atlantic 7%. 

But Thomas Cook Airlines cut delays by 37% and British Airways saw an 11% reduction.

Winter weather across Europe was worse than in 2014, particularly affecting Jet2, easyJet and Monarch, with the three airlines suffering considerable delays on ski routes to Chambery and Grenoble in France.

The second cause highlighted was the number of strikes in Europe. A four-day Lufthansa strike resulted in some 116 flights cancelled to the UK. Industrial action by Italian air traffic controllers and security staff in Germany also compounded the problem, according to EUclaim.

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