Latest news with #UKairports
The Independent
15 hours ago
- The Independent
When's the best time to fly? Airports reveal their calmest periods for flight departures
Many UK airports are experiencing their busiest summer in history, with more British people flying away on holiday than ever before. Anyone who has endured the 'first wave' of flights – typically starting before 6am and continuing to around 8am – will know that this is when airports are at their busiest. Airlines need to get airborne as early in the day as possible, extracting the maximum productivity from their planes and crew. The pressure on ground transport, security checkpoints, cafes and shops is highest early in the morning. Conversely, booking a flight when most passengers have already left the ground means progress through the airport is much easier. While budget airlines will typically plan two or three rotations (there-and-back trips) for each aircraft in the course of a day, the pressure is always highest early on. But at what point in the day does the magic moment occur when half the passengers have departed? The Independent has asked all the top UK airports. Assuming flights start leaving at 6am and finish at 11pm, if departures were evenly spread, the halfway point would be 2.30pm. In practice, though, all but one of the airports have their midway moment earlier. The answers vary sharply between airports, and can also depend on the day of the week. Birmingham is earliest at 8am, Southampton latest at 2.50pm. This is your time planner for smoother flying. Birmingham: 8am The West Midlands airport is the only one in England that has been given permission to relax the 'liquids rule' – which is good news considering the scale of the first wave of flights. Birmingham is seeing some of its busiest days ever, with more than 26,000 departing passengers – half of whom 'will leave before eight o'clock in the morning' according to Al Titterington, the terminal operations director speaking to The Independent 's daily travel podcast. Manchester: 11am 'We reached the halfway point today at just after 11am,' a spokesperson told me. 'That is broadly the same most days. Terminal 3 is the slight outlier in that it gets to halfway at around 9.30am most days.' That terminal is the low-cost hub for easyJet and Ryanair. Belfast International: 11.20am The team at the main Northern Ireland airport took the trouble to send an entire week's flying programme, in which the earliest halfway time was 9.30am (on Saturday) and the latest 1.30pm (on Sunday). The average is relatively early. Edinburgh: 12 noon Scotland's busiest airport says the midway moment fluctuates between 11am and 1pm, depending on the day's schedule. Gatwick: 12.30pm The second-busiest UK airport is the main base for easyJet, and also handles a fair number of British Airways, Wizz Air and Vueling short-haul flights. It also has some extremely early departures – starting with Wizz Air at 5.20am to Malaga, with a further 16 before 6am. Yet with some long-haul departures to the US, Caribbean, Asia and Gulf in the afternoon and evening, the halfway point is surprisingly late. Bristol: 12.30pm Ten flights are scheduled to leave the West of England hub in the 10 minutes from 5.55am, as Ryanair, Jet2 and easyJet get their first wave away. But in the afternoon there are plenty of Canary Islands and Turkish flights to balance things out. Liverpool: 12.30pm Many Irish Sea services (sometimes as late as 11.50pm to Dublin on Ryanair) mean departures across the day. 'Our 'first wave' from around 6am to 8.30am remains the busiest concentrated period of the day still,' says a spokesperson. Luton: 1pm With a busy eastern European operation on Wizz Air and a wide spread of departure times, the halfway point at which 15,000 of the day's passengers have left is lunchtime. Glasgow: 1.10pm A busy programme domestic routes, including a final flight of the night to Bristol at 10pm, makes the halfway passenger point at Scotland's second-busiest airport relatively late. Stansted: 1.30pm The 'first' flight out of the day is actually a very late-night service on Pegasus to Istanbul, departing at 12.20am. Budget airline operations on Jet2 and Ryanair start at around 5.45am. While the midway moment is early afternoon, any time after around 9am is relatively calm. Nobody does a first wave quite like Stansted. Newcastle: 1.45pm The Emirates departure to Dubai is at 2.15pm, keeping the airport busy to early afternoon. Add in a few late trips to Turkey and you can see why the halfway point is relatively late. Heathrow: 2.15pm The UK's main air hub has a different pattern of flights from all other UK airports. Early morning is peak time for arrivals (with both runways used for touchdowns between 6am and 7am), while few wide-bodied aircraft get going much before 9am. With another peak for departures in late evening, it is no surprise that the halfway point is well into the afternoon. Aberdeen: 2.25pm With a first flight out at 6am to Amsterdam, and a final departure scheduled for 9pm or later, the midpoint strikes me as surprisingly late. Lots of Scottish 'domestics' on Loganair, plus regular London Heathrow departures, make it late. Southampton: 2.50pm The Hampshire airport has a different pattern to most other airports, with its primary focus on the Channel Islands and UK domestic routes. If you want to work at an airport but also enjoy a lie-in, Southampton is the one to go for; the first flight does not leave until 8am (to Guernsey), with the last at 8pm (to Dublin).
CNN
a day ago
- CNN
Flights grounded at UK airports by major technical issue
Flights from all United Kingdom airports have been grounded by technical problems, London's Gatwick Airport said Wednesday. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
100ml liquids limit scrapped at Birmingham and Edinburgh airport security
Nineteen years after aviation security was tightened with the so-called '100ml liquids rule', two leading UK airports have scrapped the limit. Passengers using Birmingham and Edinburgh can keep all their belongings – including containers holding up to two litres – in a bag through the checkpoint. But travellers are warned that the rules for their return journey are likely to be different. In 2006, British detectives uncovered a terror plot to assemble explosives on board transatlantic aircraft from liquids carried in hand luggage. A limit of 100ml on the size of containers of liquids, aerosols and gels ('LAGs') was brought in hastily in 2006 as 'a temporary measure'. The aim is to replace the traditional X-ray machine at security checkpoints with medical-grade scanners that can analyse the molecular structure of the contents of a passenger's bag and detect potential threats. A series of government instructions was due to see all major UK airports fitted with the new equipment by June 2024. But some key hubs missed the deadline. At airports that were compliant, within days the 100ml limit was re-imposed because of concerns over the working of the new hardware and software. At the time the Department for Transport (DfT) said it was a 'temporary move' to 'enable further improvements to be made to the new checkpoint systems'. Ahead of the summer rush of 2025, almost every security lane at UK airports is equipped with new kit. Passengers are able to keep liquids and laptops in their cabin bags, potentially accelerating the security check while making it less intrusive. But the 100ml LAGs limit has applied until this month. Now, airports whose security protocols are signed off by the DfT can drop the 100ml limit. A spokesperson for the department said: 'Some airports are rolling out new technology that will allow liquid containers up to two litres to be taken through security in hand luggage. 'As this will be happening at different times at UK airports, passengers should continue to check security requirements with airports before they travel and come prepared with liquids in containers no larger than 100 ml in hand baggage unless advised otherwise.' So far only Birmingham and Edinburgh have been approved. At the West Midlands airport, passengers are urged not to put 'liquids, pastes and gels into plastic bags', being told instead to 'leave them loose in hand luggage'. Gordon Dewar, chief executive of the Scottish capital's airport, said: 'A whole generation of travellers have only known the 100ml rule to be the case, so it really is a momentous day as we become the first airport in Scotland to lift the rule since it was introduced in 2006. 'The change allows more flexibility for passengers to take liquids through security, all while maintaining and improving our high safety levels through the use of 3D technology. But it is important that passengers continue to check with the situation at their return airport as not all airports will be moving away from 100ml just yet.' Edinburgh and Birmingham airports are respectively sixth and seventh busiest in the UK, and are expected to handle more than 27 million passengers this year between them. Airports such as Aberdeen, Bristol, London City, Newcastle and Teesside are expected to make changes soon. But London Heathrow and Manchester are believed to be keeping some old-style X-ray machines in service. At Manchester, Terminal 3 is due to be demolished and therefore it would be wasteful to install new kit. Rather than having different rules for different terminals, the 100ml standard is being kept in place. The European Union and wider Schengen Area also reverted to the 'old' rules at all airports from 1 September 2024, following concerns about the new equipment installed at some airports.
The Independent
07-07-2025
- The Independent
100ml liquids limit scrapped at Birmingham and Edinburgh airport security
Nineteen years after aviation security was tightened with the so-called '100ml liquids rule', two leading UK airports have scrapped the limit. Passengers using Birmingham and Edinburgh can keep all their belongings – including containers holding up to two litres – in a bag through the checkpoint. But travellers are warned that the rules for their return journey are likely to be different. In 2006, British detectives uncovered a terror plot to assemble explosives on board transatlantic aircraft from liquids carried in hand luggage. A limit of 100ml on the size of containers of liquids, aerosols and gels ('LAGs') was brought in hastily in 2006 as 'a temporary measure'. The aim is to replace the traditional X-ray machine at security checkpoints with medical-grade scanners that can analyse the molecular structure of the contents of a passenger 's bag and detect potential threats. A series of government instructions was due to see all major UK airports fitted with the new equipment by June 2024. But some key hubs missed the deadline. At airports that were compliant, within days the 100ml limit was re-imposed because of concerns over the working of the new hardware and software. At the time the Department for Transport (DfT) said it was a 'temporary move' to 'enable further improvements to be made to the new checkpoint systems'. Ahead of the summer rush of 2025, almost every security lane at UK airports is equipped with new kit. Passengers are able to keep liquids and laptops in their cabin bags, potentially accelerating the security check while making it less intrusive. But the 100ml LAGs limit has applied until this month. Now, airports whose security protocols are signed off by the DfT can drop the 100ml limit. A spokesperson for the department said: 'Some airports are rolling out new technology that will allow liquid containers up to two litres to be taken through security in hand luggage. 'As this will be happening at different times at UK airports, passengers should continue to check security requirements with airports before they travel and come prepared with liquids in containers no larger than 100 ml in hand baggage unless advised otherwise.' So far only Birmingham and Edinburgh have been approved. At the West Midlands airport, passengers are urged not to put 'liquids, pastes and gels into plastic bags', being told instead to 'leave them loose in hand luggage'. Gordon Dewar, chief executive of the Scottish capital's airport, said: 'A whole generation of travellers have only known the 100ml rule to be the case, so it really is a momentous day as we become the first airport in Scotland to lift the rule since it was introduced in 2006. 'The change allows more flexibility for passengers to take liquids through security, all while maintaining and improving our high safety levels through the use of 3D technology. But it is important that passengers continue to check with the situation at their return airport as not all airports will be moving away from 100ml just yet.' Edinburgh and Birmingham airports are respectively sixth and seventh busiest in the UK, and are expected to handle more than 27 million passengers this year between them. Airports such as Aberdeen, Bristol, London City, Newcastle and Teesside are expected to make changes soon. But London Heathrow and Manchester are believed to be keeping some old-style X-ray machines in service. Rather than having different rules for different terminals, the 100ml standard is being kept in place. The European Union and wider Schengen Area also reverted to the 'old' rules at all airports from 1 September 2024, following concerns about the new equipment installed at some airports.
The Sun
18-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Britain's worst airport for flight cancellations revealed – are you flying from there this summer?
Roisin Chapman, Lifestyle Reporter Published: Invalid Date, THE British airport with the most flight cancellations has officially been named. New data revealed the amount of flights axed at all major UK airports across 2023 and 2024. 2 The new study was conducted by flight compensation specialists at AirAdvisor and analysed scheduled departures from 20 of the busiest airports by passenger traffic across the UK. Hubs in England, Scotland, Wales, and the North of Ireland were studied over the last two years. The research found that the average flight cancellation rate in 2024 was 1.46% across the UK airports. This was a slight decline from the 1.78% recorded for 2023. Southampton emerged as the UK's worst major airport for cancelled flights. The location was followed by Belfast City, London City, Aberdeen, and Glasgow airports. Punctuality statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) cited that 3.57% of flights from Southampton were cancelled in 2024. According to the CAA, cancelled flights are defined as "the non-operation of a previously planned flight, announced less than 24 hours before or after its scheduled departure time". Meanwhile, London's major airports, consisting of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, and London City, saw the number of flights cancelled fall by almost 15% between 2023 and 2024. Belfast City Airport saw 3.31% of scheduled flights axed, which was down from 3.5% in 2023. Pigeons caused chaos on a Delta Airlines flight Saturday night at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport Cancellations at London City Airport stood at 3.13%, a decrease from 4% the previous year. Aberdeen Airport saw 2.7% of flights cancelled in 2024, while Glasgow Airport rang in at 2.15%. On the other hand, the findings also revealed the five UK airports with the lowest cancellation rates in 2024. Bournemouth took the top spot for the second year running with a rate of just 0.08%. East Midlands International came in second at 0.39%, followed by Belfast International at 0.41%, Luton at 0.58%, and Bristol at 0.66%. "The UK aviation industry is still in something of a recovery mode post-pandemic, however there is light at the end of the tunnel," said Anton Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor. "This is reflected by the average cancellation rates at most major airports decreasing, which is promising to see." He revealed that several airports across the UK have cancellation rates that are more than double the national average. "These airports and their airline partners simply must do better. And passengers deserve better," he continued. "Fortunately, British air passengers are protected by comprehensive legislation that entitles you to up to £520 in compensation if your flight to or from the UK, or with a UK or EU-based airline is cancelled with less than two weeks' notice, depending on the circumstances that led to the cancellation." And for customers whose journeys have been affected by cancelled flights, he advised using a free compensation calculator to figure out what you are owed. 2
