According to travel tech firm AirHelp, 21 million people planned a trip between January and March with over 149,000 registered flights departing from the UK. While most of the UK passengers faced delays of under three hours, meaning they were not eligible for financial compensation, over 480,000 people had the right to claim and receive financial compensation from their airline. A further 410,000 travellers had their trips cancelled altogether.

New data from AirHelp shows that London Gatwick and Manchester Airport had the highest disruption rate at 25%, affecting a total of 1.2 million passengers between January and March. Meanwhile, the most punctual airports during this period were Liverpool John Lennon Airport and London City Airport, with only 13% and 15% of passengers disrupted respectively.

When looking at the most disrupted routes from UK airports, with more than 20,000 passengers, Manchester Airport to Dubai Airport ranked the highest, with over 58% of flights disrupted during this period. Routes from London Heathrow take the second and fourth spot on the ranking, with its route to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya having a disruption rate of 56%. In third place is Glasgow Airport to Dubai Airport, with 54% of passengers facing delays or cancellations.

On the other hand, those who travelled from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia experienced the least disruption, with over 97% of the flights taking place between January and March departing on time. London Heathrow to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China and Heathrow to Beijing Capital International Airport also demonstrated a high percentage of punctuality at 96%.

According to AirHelp, over 10 million passengers across the UK faced flight disruption between November 2023 and February 2024.