Why are the EasyJet flights always delayed ?

[Oattree]

All the flights we have been this year with EasyJet have been delayed around 2hours. Is this the same for all other airlines? Should we consider other airlines?

I'll be interested to hear other responses - we're regular fliers. very often with easyjet and not had anything other than 10-15 minutes delays wirb EJ, usually none. Worst delay we've had in last couple of years was 30 mins wirb Ryanair

We have been in about 4 trips this year from London to different European destinations and there have always been a delayed from one to 2 or a bit more hours.

It wasn’t like this before pandemic

We flew BA this year and the takeoff was delayed 4 hours :(

Also BA and delayed by 2 hours ( Europe). I don’t think it’s just Easyjet.

Is it the restricted air space over Europe. It was quite busy before and now there’s a big chunk missing which impacts them all?https://www.ebaa.org/app/uploads/2022/02/blank_ukr_486.png

Or maybe just good old fashion lack of staff. If you’ve got half the baggage handlers , ground crew etc it will impact that flight and knock on as everyone gets behind.

Very rarely but we are flying from Scotland.

That's just your bad luck. I've flown regularly since the pandemic (on various airlines but mostly easyJet) and they generally run to time. I wouldn't say it's a reason to go out of your way not to book with them. Generally you need to choose the best time/location/route/price for your journey, not add arbitrary extra criteria.

We flew with EJ earlier this year - LGW to Lanzarote. Slight delay (30-40 mins) on way out, no delay returning. Outbound delay was because previous plane was late leaving Malta. Not a massive deal as Gatwick is huge so a bit of a more leisurely lunch and mooching.

I agree OP
Hardly ever any delays with Ryanair and they were the only ones who kept going during covid.

I am on a plane every other week to a European destination and can confirm the delays with EJ are the worst and have resulted in me no longer flying with them. The worst one was 5 hours which resulted in me saying never again. I don’t have that problem with other airlines and happily pay a little bit extra.

Out of Gatwick? Gatwick's been awful this year. I would say worse than last year when problems were well publicised etc.

That’s weird. I used to pick BA but due to so many delays over the years I generally fly EasyJet now and so far they have had fewer delays 🤷🏼‍♀️

EJ do a quick (very quick) turnaround ie passengers for next flight queueing at Gate as arrival passengers trek past them off the plane. So any delay can just get exaggerated through the day. If you get the first flight of the day then you should be ok.

Agree with Kweeky. We try to get the first flight of the day.

I’ve never been delayed with EJ or Ryanair. Ever. The only time I was delayed was flying Etihad to Bangkok.

Slightly informed rumours are:

EJ specific - Shortage of crew (especially pilots) and also some ground staff (Especially at Gatwick)

There has been a general shortage of some non-EJ staff at Gatwick (e.g. ATC were short for a while) which has contributed to all airlines picking up delays out of there at times.

More ATC slot delays for all airlines across Europe this year than last two or three...(Overspill from Ukraine war means more congestion, plus flights up this summer people back to travelling).

The smaller airports may be less effected by airport slots e.g. it's likely to be OK at places like "Back of Beyond International" but even the airline using these will still pick up en-route slot delays. You are almost certainly bound to get more delays out of the major airports.

As an aside It also helps your PR if you can kid people into thinking that landing time= arrival time.🙄

And yes, delays for an airframe (and/or crew) can increase throughout the working day and then feed into following sectors so later flights do tend to be the ones that run late unless the aircraft/crew have had a perfect day..and that's true almost regardless of the airline. Y

I don't fly EJ but I fly Ryanair about 10 times a year, and over the last few years I would say 60% of my flights have been delayed, by anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours. It is usually because the incoming flight has been delayed, and in fairness the longest delays have been caused by strikes on the continent.

I’m flying London to Boston return with BA in a few weeks and I’ve been looking at my flights on FlightRadar. These are daily flights and not once has either leg departed on time. Not just a few minutes but frequent significant delays of 1.5 to 2 hours.

The whole of European airspace is very congested and in the summertime all airlines will have some delays due to atc

thaf said Easyjet and ryanair etc are more vulnerable because of their short turnaround times, typically half an hour, and the planes do far more sectors in a day, typically 6 or 8 rather than 4. So if the first flight of the day is 30m late, all of the take-off and landing slots for the rest of the day will be missed so the delays snowball.

late flights are more likely to be heavily delayed than the morning ones.

Just for background - I've forgotten the details but from memory Long haul turnrounds are typically set at a minimum of about 1 hr 30-45 min (more if an A 380) so anything inbound more than maybe 15 min late and the outbound will almost certainly be delayed.

As to why the Boston-London is consistently delayed - you need to look at the aircraft's flight history (and flight radar can do this) prior to the London-Boston sector to perhaps get a handle on the problem, reason being one possibility of several is that the aircraft is being planned for a whole series of tight turn arounds and the delays on the Boston service are the end result....

One problem almost unique to Long haul is that the aircraft don't get a night off that can be used help reset schedules, so that in effect they can start the day afresh and ensure the first departure is on time.

The reality is it's not at all uncommon for a Long Haul aircraft to arrive at LHR from somewhere in the East at 8 in the morning and be scheduled for a US departure two hours later....so a big delay half way around the world can end effecting an arrival time into the States best part of a day later.

Sometimes it takes a complete rejig of the integration of an aircraft's schedule to fix a consistently delayed service, and given the tightness of resources that often can't be done quickly.

Not sure if that helps because ultimately it's PITA I know, but hope it's useful.

@notimagain Thanks, that’s enlightening.

And yes, it is an 380.

A380. 🙄

Our flights this summer were delayed by ATC restrictions and also shortage of ground staff which in turn meant we missed our slot and had to wait an hour for another one.

I've not had issues with EasyJet myself (or rather dp who flies at least twice a month for business) was a few minutes late earlier this year when I flew but that was due to a problem with the wheelchair lift at the airport before ours (we were on the last flight of the day) they don't allow much slack in the schedule so tiny hiccups beyond their control cause delays, sage with Ryan air etc.

In fact all the delays I've had ever have been due to airport issues or weather - to be expected from time to time

I see this evenings A380 was late out of LHR again, but since it arrived from it's previous sector (Johannesburg-London) at breakfast time a tight turn was not the problem today.

FWIW Flight radar doesn't track departure timings properly (it uses the airborne time which is wrong, it should be time off gate) so their figures can be misleading but looking at ba.com I can see there was a delay of 42 minutes late which isn't good.