Gatwick delays worsen despite owner's pledge

Passengers at Gatwick suffered huge increases in flight delays despite the airport's new owner pledging to reduce misery for travellers.

Nearly one in 10 arrivals and departures were more than an hour late at Britain's second biggest airport - almost double that of the previous year. This raises questions about new US-based owner Global Infrastructure Partners' ability to honour its commitment to radically improve services for customers.

Delays lengthened by nearly 60 per cent last year - the first of GIP's ownership- with passengers waiting on average more than an extra 20 minutes to take off or land compared with 13.4 minutes the previous year. The national average delay time is 16.8 minutes.

Problems with volcanic ash and heavy snowfalls last year affected operations at Gatwick as they did other airports.

Compiled by website flightontime.info using statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority, the datum shows 1.4 per cent of flights were three hours delayed compared with 0.79 per cent in 2009.

Gatwick was sold by BAA for £1.5 billion in December 2009, ahead of a ruling by the Competition Commission that it must relinquish it, as well as Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports. At the time Gatwick promised to drastically improve operations for passengers and "set the benchmark" for service in London, with chief executive Stewart Wingate saying travellers would see a difference "within months".

But industry experts questioned whether GIP, a joint venture between US industrial giant General Electric and investment bank Credit Suisse, would be able to make a huge difference.

The latest statistics come after it emerged Gatwick's new owners are paying themselves a £330 million dividend. The size of the payout is said to have infuriated BAA and its major shareholder Ferrovial, angry that its shareholders missed out on recouping value from the business.

Bob Atkinson, from travelsupermarket.com, said Gatwick needed to demonstrate a willingness to be transparent about how they would improve the problem of increasing delays.

Gatwick said it was "committed" to cutting travel delays and that 82.8 per cent of departing flights left on time in the first three months of this year, compared with 72.1 per cent last year. She added: "We will continue to work with our airlines and their handling agents to drive better performance for the benefit of passengers."