Will this be the worst summer ever for flight delays?

If your flight is delayed this summer, Ryanair says it knows who you should blame.

It claims that 2024 was a record year for Air Traffic Control (ATC) disruption, caused by national ATC centres across Europe being ‘‘mismanaged and short staffed’.

Ryanair says:  ‘The EU Commission and governments have taken no action to fix their shoddy ATC services and ATC delays will now be even worse in Summer 2025.’

The airline is particularly scathing about Air Traffic Controllers in France and Spain. It accused France’s Air Traffic Controllers of delaying 2,814,120 Ryanair passengers and Spain’s of delaying a further 2,083,690 Ryanair passengers, this year up until 26 May.

The UK’s NATS (National Air Traffic Control Services) is also included in what Ryanair called a ‘league of delays’, with 295,560 Ryanair passengers delayed, according to the airline's own figures. 

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Was last year a record for Air Traffic Control delays?

We asked the Air Traffic Controllers of France and Spain - the two regions that received the strongest criticism from Ryanair - and NATs in the UK and Eurocontrol - responsible for overseeing UK and EU air traffic - if it was true that they were responsible for record delays last year.

We didn’t get a direct answer but none of them disputed the claim that 2024 was a very bad year for Air Traffic Control delays - and the challenge is continuing into 2025.

However, Spain’s Air Traffic Control service ENAIRE did dispute Ryanair’s argument that this was despite there being fewer flights. It said that the number of flights to Spain has increased much more than was predicted. It said Southern Spain had seen increases of 26%, compared with 2019.

We haven’t yet received a response from French Air Traffic Control.

Punctuality improves from the UK

Overall punctuality for flights to and from the UK was better in 2024 than 2023 - and significantly better than in 2022 - when airlines and airports struggled to adjust to the surge in travel following the lifting of pandemic restrictions.

The UK’s NATs said that it was fully staffed and prepared for a busy summer - and added that, in the last month, ‘99.2% of UK flights had no NATS-attributable delay.’

How likely are flight delays this summer?

Eurocontrol, which oversees air traffic across Europe, agreed that there is a shortage of Air Traffic Controllers - given the growth of flights to Spain, Portugal and other areas of southern Europe.

It said: ‘in some parts of the European network, the number of ATCOs (Air Traffic Control Officer)  is 10-20% lower than would be needed to manage the demand.’ It also said that - since the invasion of Ukraine - only 80% of European airspace is available for flights.

As safety is their priority, this means that flights can be delayed and cancelled.

However, both NATs in the UK and ENAIRE in Spain said that they do have plans in place to cope with the surge in flights to the most popular Mediterranean destinations.

ENAIRE told us that it was recruiting more air traffic controllers and putting in place plans to reduce disruption this summer.

It’s likely that there will be disruption - as there is every year - but it’s too early to say whether it will be worse than last summer.

In 2024 just over a third of flights from UK airports were more than 15 minutes late - 0.63% were over three hours late and 1.49% were cancelled less than 24-hours before scheduled take-off.

Is Air Traffic Control the real reason your flight is delayed?

Probably not. In 2021 the Department for Transport analysed Eurocontrol data from 2019 and concluded that the majority of severely delayed flights in Europe were the responsibility of airlines. 

It said most passengers on those flights would have been eligible for compensation, which is not the case if a delay is caused by external factors such as Air Traffic Control disruption or severe weather.

Make sure you claim your flight delay compensation

There’s no automatic compensation for fight delays and cancellations. You have to make a claim and, if it’s refused, you can then take it to either one of the main Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes or, if your airline’s not a member of a scheme, you can go to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

See our guide to claiming for flight disruption, how much you could get - and what to do next if your airline turns you down.

Want to find out the real reasons for flight delays? In the next issue of Which? Travel magazine we’re investigating airlines, airports and Air Traffic Control  to reveal the real reason why so many of us face flight delays  

What can you do to reduce the risk of flight delays or cancellations?

• Choose your airline wisely. Some airlines are much more punctual than others. We record statistics for punctuality and cancellations each year in our annual airlines survey, and in our most recent analysis, some airlines failed to run nearly half their flights on time. 

• Disruption builds up during the day.  Airline turn-around times are so tight that if an incoming flight is delayed, it can mean that the next outgoing flight will also be delayed. This means that a 20 minute delay first thing in the morning can lead to a longer delay, or a flight cancellation later on.

• Choose your route wisely. While flights to some parts of the world have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, others are busier than ever - and may be more prone to delays. When we checked earlier this year a London to Mallorca route was the worst for delays. Flights to Turkey and Greece accounted for many of the others. If you choose routes away from the most popular, Mediterranean hotspots, you may reduce the risk of delays.

• Choose your airport wisely. In the data we looked at Manchester Airport was the departure point for five of the ten most delayed routes. Nearby Liverpool Airport scored much higher in our annual airport survey - and flights from there were more likely to leave on time.