Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of outbound flights from the six largest airports serving London that were delayed over the last three months; and whether she has had discussions with (a) London Heathrow airport, (b) London Gatwick airport, (c) City airport, (d) Luton airport, (e) London stansted airport and (f) Southend airport on steps they are taking to decrease the number of (i) delays and (ii) cancellations.

The aviation industry predominantly operates in the private sector, therefore it is the responsibility of the industry to have robust resilience plans in place to meet demand, recruit, and roster staff, and have appropriate mitigations in place.

The Civil Aviation Authority publishes quarterly aviation trends, which include delay statistics for the airports in question. The most recent published data is for April – June 2024 and can be found here.

The Department for Transport engages regularly with industry to understand the issues facing industry, and to ensure that plans are in place to minimise delays and disruption. For example, the Aviation Minister wrote to the industry in October 2024 regarding preparedness for the upcoming winter period.