MORE than four in five scheduled flights were on time in the first three months of the year, the Civil Aviation Authority has said. The number of scheduled flights landing or taking off on time between January and March increased by 11 per cent from the same period last year to 81 per cent, while the average delay fell by five minutes to 12 minutes. The improvement could be because the recession meant airports were less busy. The number of scheduled flights was down 9 per cent compared to last year and passenger numbers fell 11 per cent. Heathrow, the UK's biggest airport, showed the greatest improvement, with 79 per cent of flights on time compared to just 59 per cent last year. The average delay was halved from 24 minutes to 12 minutes. London City improved from 66 per cent to 84 per cent, halving the average delay to nine minutes. At Gatwick 65 per cent of charter flights were on time, up from 59 per cent, while 82 per cent of scheduled flights were on time, a rise of 8 per cent. Regional airports, including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle, improved the on-time performance of charter and scheduled flights to 71 per cent and 83 per cent respectively. Now the bad news The recession has grounded millions of airline passengers, the Civil Aviation Authority said today, with figures showing a 13% drop in the number of people using UK airports. Transatlantic travel is the biggest victim of the downturn, with numbers falling by 15% as the near-collapse of the banking industry hit traffic and the weak pound deterred tourists. The British aviation watchdog said domestic travel also suffered, falling by 8.7%. The largest market, from the UK to mainland Europe, fell by 7.3%, although it still accounts for more than half of all air journeys in the UK thanks to the enduring strength of the low-cost carriers Ryanair and easyJet. But the economic downturn has improved punctuality and helped ease overcrowding at Britain's airports, which had previously earned worldwide notoriety for their packed departure lounges. The first quarter of 2009 saw 6.4 million fewer passengers use UK airports than during the same period in 2008, according to the CAA, with the number of flights dropping by 50,000. Aviation experts said the passenger decline was good news for those airline customers who are still booking tickets. Ryanair, now Europe's largest short-haul carrier, is cutting fares by up to 20% this year in a bid to fill its rapidly expanding fleet, while British Airways has said it does not plan to raise ticket prices. However, the most obvious effect will be in security queues and at departure gates. Four out of five scheduled flights at UK airports now take off and land on time, according to the CAA, helped by a reduction in services that means fewer planes are seeking slots at airports. "The fact that airports are less busy means it is probably easier to get through and it will contribute to better punctuality," John Strickland, an industry consultant, said. "The day to day experience of going through airports is likely to benefit from this." Environmental campaigners said the firgures bolstered the argument against airport expansion. The planned opening date for a second runway at Stansted has been pushed back to 2017 after the airport operator BAA admitted the Essex airport would not attract the necessary 35 million passengers a year until well into the next decade. Last year, the number of passengers passing through British airports fell for the first time since 1991 and, if the first quarter trend continues, is heading for its first decline in successive years since the second world war. "Airport expansion should be put on the back burner now ... it is not clear that the industry can afford the expansion anyway," Stephen Joseph, the executive director at the Campaign for Better Transport, said. However, the government is adamant that the long-term trend is for strong growth, with the recession representing no more than a blip in demand. The Department for Transport has predicted a doubling of UK air travel to 465 million passengers a year by 2030 and has sanctioned new runways at Heathrow and Stansted to meet that projected demand. However, optimism for the future has not stopped some of aviation's biggest names from adopting apocalyptic language when discussing the current state of the industry. Willie Walsh, the BA chief executive, warned that the entire industry is in a "fight for survival". The boss of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has predicted a "bloodbath" this winter as airlines threaten to price each other out of business with lower fares, while the founder of easyJet, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has openly questioned his airline's expansion plans. The International Air Transport Association, which represents the world's biggest long-haul carriers, has warned that the industry will lose $9bn (5.5bn) this year.
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