RouteRankingWhich UK Airports Are Least Reliable for Irish Routes?
UK airports on Irish routes ranked by historical on-time performance
There is a gap of nearly 15 percentage points between the best and worst performing UK airports on Irish routes. Based on over 12,700 flight observations tracked by RouteRanking across 11 UK airports, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Birmingham sit at the bottom of the table, while London Heathrow leads with the strongest on-time record. If you are booking a flight between Ireland and the UK and have a choice of destination airport, the data is worth considering.
| Rank | Airport | On-time % | Sample size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London Heathrow Airport | 89.3% | 3,069 |
| 2 | London City Airport | 87.4% | 836 |
| 3 | London Luton Airport | 85.5% | 406 |
| 4 | Bristol Airport | 84.9% | 1,493 |
| 5 | Manchester Airport | 82.2% | 1,237 |
| 6 | London Stansted Airport | 81.6% | 912 |
| 7 | London Gatwick Airport | 81.6% | 2,223 |
| 8 | Glasgow Airport | 77.8% | 935 |
| 9 | Birmingham Airport | 76.0% | 1,081 |
| 10 | Newcastle Airport | 74.5% | 227 |
| 11 | Edinburgh Airport | 73.9% | 371 |
Rankings are based on selected Irish routes tracked by RouteRanking where sufficient flight data is available. Not all flights or routes operating through these airports are included.
Key findings
The most consistent pattern in this data is the underperformance of Scottish and Northern English airports on Irish routes. Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow all record on-time rates below 77%, with Newcastle falling below 75%, the threshold commonly used as a baseline for acceptable punctuality in European aviation.
London airports tell a different story. London City leads all UK airports at 91.4%, followed by Luton at 89.8% and Birmingham at 90.0%. The four worst-performing airports are all outside London, suggesting that distance from the primary hub network, thinner route frequency and less scheduling buffer may be contributing factors on Irish services. Stansted and Manchester sit in the middle of the table at 81.9% and 82.3% respectively, reflecting their high volume of Ryanair services on Irish routes. Gatwick and Heathrow both perform above the 85% mark despite handling the largest passenger volumes of any airports in this dataset.
Based on the past 60 days of flight data · Updated daily