Bristol Airport delays and cancellations: How does Bristol compare to rival airport

More than 1,500 flights to and from Bristol Airport were delayed in the first three months of 2022, according to recent Civil Aviation Authority figures.

As travel disruptions continue across the UK ahead of the summer holidays, the statistics show that 17.3% (1,549) of flights at Bristol Airport were delayed, while 1% (93) were cancelled.

The delays and cancellations are out of a total 8,934 flights departing and arriving from January to March.

Passengers at the airport have also experienced a range of queues and waiting times to get through security, as officials sort departures.

Are more flights being cancelled?

While official figures have not yet been released for Easter and spring half-term holidays, figures show that 3,363 flights were cancelled across the 26 major UK airports until the end of March.

This represents 1.5% of flights to or from the airports, which is up from 0.9% of flights cancelled in the same period in 2019, according to the Civil Aviation Authority figures.

A spokesperson from the CAA said the emergence of the Omicron covid variant before Christmas “led to many flight cancellations and some key European markets imposing bans on UK travellers.”

How does Bristol Airport compare to other airports

Officials count a flight as delayed if it is more than 15 minutes late, so across the 26 UK airports, 20% encountered delays at the start of 2022.

However, some airports experienced more delays than others - while Bristol saw 17.3% of flights in and out of their airport delayed, Doncaster Sheffield had 27.4% of flights running late, making it the hardest hit airport in the UK up to March.

Cardiff saw 17.9% of flights (133) delayed with none cancelled during the time period, while Exeter had 12.6% delayed (103) and none cancelled.

Birmingham Airport, which can be easy to get to from Bristol due to rail links, saw 21.5% of flights delayed and 1.2% ca

The proportion of delayed flights in the UK is similar to those in previous years so whether it was before or after the pandemic, at least one if five planes were running behind schedule.

For people using Bristol Airport, most flights today (June 15) are on time.