Dublin Airport third-worst in Europe for delays - survey

A new survey shows Dublin Airport is the third worst in Europe for delays, with over a third of all scheduled flights not taking off on time.

Only London Gatwick and Madrid fare worse than Dublin, according to figures from by the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

The figures show 36.6 per cent of all trips from Dublin were delayed by over 15 minutes during the third quarter of this year. The average delay was 44 minutes. A total of 35.5 per cent of all arrivals to Dublin were late and by an average of 39 minutes.

The worst European airline for delays at Dublin Airport was Austrian Airlines, with 66.7 per cent of all departures and 84.8 per cent of arrivals delayed. The longest delays were on Air Malta flights, with departure delays averaging 57 minutes.

The most reliable airport in the 27 surveyed is Helsinki, with only 8 per cent of flights delayed, closely followed by Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Brussels was the only other airport with a delay rate of less than 15 per cent. In the last AEA survey, twelve of the 27 achieved this figure.

The survey was carried out between July and September. It found 22.7 per cent of all flights to and from European airports had delays of over 15 minutes. This was an improvement on the 26.2 per cent posted for the same period last year but worse than 16.6 per cent for the second quarter.

Nearly two-thirds of all delays were blamed on air traffic control and other technical reasons.