Half of flights late in dire Heathrow hassle

Heathrow Airport is grinding to a halt, with latest official statistics revealing that nearly every second flight is running late.

The Civil Aviation Authority today said 44% of planes taking off or arriving at Heathrow in the first three months of 2008 were late. The 56% punctuality rate is believed to be the worst in the airport's history, and is nine percentage points worse than the 65% on-time performance in the first three months of 2007.

The figures, which confirm what passengers for months have been calling Heathrow Hassle, show the airport has the worst performance of any major airport in the UK.

While the Terminal 5 fiasco has been dominating the news on Heathrow, its failure from its opening on 27 March means T5 accounts for only five days of delays in the figures.

The CAA's statistics show the gradual collapse into crisis at Heathrow. In spring 2003, 77% of Heathrow's flights were on time. But by the end of 2004, the figure had fallen below 70% and by the end of last year it was down to what was then a new low of 60%.

Even at the height of the aviation crisis following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Heathrow on-time statistics came in at 69% and 75%.

Since Heathrow and its operator BAA were taken over by Spanish construction company Ferrovial in summer 2006, the airport's on-time statistics have failed to beat the historically low level of 65%.

A spokesman for Heathrow said: "The CAA's figures are the latest evidence of the problems caused by a lack of capacity at Heathrow Airport."