Despite increasing calls for improvement, reports on the delay monitoring website www.ukairportdelays.co.uk show that UK airports were still not prepared for the traditionally heavy August bank holiday traffic, leaving travellers frustrated over the weekend.  Whilst Heathrow has faced strong criticism, many travellers will be surprised to hear that Gatwick has been ranked by www.ukairportdelays.co.uk as the worst airport in the country for two weeks running, with the highest average reported delays.

The new website, set up by independent travel agents Travel Counsellors is calling for travellers to voice the facts about badly managed UK airports so the results can be gathered and provided to pressure airports and political authorities to make changes.

More than 330 people have already posted their complaints and over 11,000 unique visitors have visited the site to check out the latest delays from local airports.

Despite being one of the UK’s smaller airports, Liverpoolairport currentlyranks second worst airport in the country with reported check-in times of almost 55 minutes.

A further five airports are shown to have delays reported by passengers through check-in, security and immigration that average more than 15 minutes for each. Third worst is Luton, followed by Manchester, Stansted, Heathrow and Newcastle.

David Speakman, Travel Counsellors’ founder and chairman who set up the lobbying site said: “It strikes me as incredible that BAA is still not responding to our calls for change, despite mounting public complaints.

“There are delays across the board at UK airports and travellers are becoming increasingly frustrated by their treatment. The situation was compounded at the weekend when airports were still not geared up to deal with the heavy traffic despite August Bank Holiday traditionally being the UK’s busiest weekend.”

David Speakman continued; “Together we need to take a stand. Travellers need to let us know about the reality of what they are facing in airports. I will then take this information to politicians and airport authorities and will campaign hard to make a difference.”

Airport delays league table Ten worst ranking UK airports Airport Check-in (waiting time) Security (waiting time) Immigration (waiting time) 1 (longest) Gatwick 27 minutes 34 minutes 22 minutes 2 Liverpool 53 minutes 15 minutes 6 minutes 3 Luton 24 minutes 25 minutes 17 minutes 4 Manchester 28 minutes 23 minutes 15 minutes 5 Stansted 22 minutes 30 minutes 14 minutes 6 Heathrow 25 minutes 24 minutes 16 minutes 7 Newcastle 30 minutes 18 minutes 15 minutes 8 Southampton 33 minutes 7 minutes 12 minutes 9 Leeds Bradford 28 minutes 12 minutes 4 minutes 10 London City 19 minutes 7 minutes 5 minutes
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