Flying home for Christmas? This UK airport is the most likely to cancel your flight

These airports have had the most cancellations in December over the last three years

Nov 2, 2024 - 21:01

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Flying home for Christmas? This UK airport is the most likely to cancel your flight

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Aberdeen Airport has been named the riskiest airport to fly from this Christmas period after it has seen a persistent trend of cancellations year after year.

As Christmas approaches, many UK airports get busier, with crowds starting to form and check-in queues getting longer as families jet off to meet their loved ones, while others are using the time off work to take a winter holiday.

However, things don’t always go smoothly during this busy period, as flight disruptions and cancellations often dampen long-awaited festive plans.

According to data from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) from the past three years, Aberdeen Airport has on average a higher percentage of cancelled flights than anywhere else in the UK.

Combining results from the Decembers in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the CAA was able to determine the most and least reliable airports.

Aberdeen had 7.18 per cent of its flights cancelled, while Leeds Bradford Airport saw 7.06 per cent of journeys cancelled over the past three Decembers.

London City Airport came in third with 6.53 per cent of its flights cancelled over the previous three festive periods.

At the other end of the scale, there were three airports whose cancellations came in at a perfect 0 per cent; these were Bournemouth, Doncaster Sheffield and Southend.

Other airports that had very low average cancellation rates were East Midlands International with 0.27 per cent, Belfast International also hitting the same number of cancellations at 0.27 per cent and Exeter, who had 0.57 per cent of journeys axed across the past three Decembers.

Aberdeen Airport has been approached for comment.

This article was amended on 1 November 2024. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Leeds Bradford Airport was the riskiest to fly from with the most cancellations, as a result of data from the CAA being inaccurately interpreted by a third party.