Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Which? analysis of Civil Aviation Data, published 6 July 2019, that showed eight out of 10 of the UK’s busiest airlines recorded an increase in delays of more than an hour between 2014 and 2018.

It is disappointing to see any deterioration of performance by airlines and the impact this can have on passengers. Delays can be caused by a number of reasons which are sometimes outside of airlines’ control.

The Department works closely with the industry on resilience issues to plan for and mitigate the common causes of delay.

In addition, the expansion of Heathrow and the major programme of work to modernise UK airspace will help to minimise delays for passengers and allow the system to recover more quickly from disruptive events.