VLM is the most punctual airline at Manchester

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sn26567
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VLM is the most punctual airline at Manchester

Post by sn26567 »

From Manchester online:
No-frills airline in a spin
John Scheerhout

BUDGET airline bmibaby has come bottom in a punctuality league table at Manchester Airport.

The no-frills carrier propped up a table of the nine-biggest scheduled airlines in detailed "on-time" winter season figures.

They were compiled by airport officials for airlines - and obtained by the M.E.N.

They reveal just 48 per cent of their arrivals landed "on time", defined by the Civil Aviation Authority as within 15 minutes of the schedule.

The average delay was 32 minutes, although the actual average delay for passengers was 47 minutes when the grace period is added.

The airline also came bottom in the departures punctuality league, with a record of 63 per cent of flights leaving "on time" and an average delay of 23 minutes (actual, 38 minutes).

The airline, with nine destinations from its new base at Birmingham, has proved extremely poplar since it became Manchester's first significant no-frills carrier last year - it now goes to ten destinations.

Managing director Tony Davis said: "Manchester is worst for punctuality, but we are working hard with our handling agent and the airport to ensure an improvement."

The airline mainly uses smaller airports and he admitted the size of Manchester Airport may be a factor.

VLM Airlines, which flies shuttles to City of London Airport, and Eastern Airways, which operates services to Inverness, Stansted and Norwich, alternately share the top two spots for both departures and arrivals, with between 89 and 93 per cent of aircraft on time between November and March.

British Airways, by far the airport's biggest airline, scores a 73 per cent record for departures and 84 per cent for arrivals.

In separate league tables for charter airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines and First Choice Airways, formerly Air 2000, perform the best of the major carriers.

Thomas Cook Airlines comes top of the arrivals league with 80 per cent on time, while First Choice Airways tops the departures league, with 88 per cent.

Britannia comes third, while MyTravel Airways comes second from bottom in both the six-strong departures and arrivals leagues.

Monarch Airlines and Excel Airways share the bottom spots, although they fly relatively fewer flights, while MyTravel Airways, which plans to axe 540 jobs, landed 59 per cent of its planes on time, with 75 per cent taking off on time.

Recent punctuality figures comparing airports rather than airlines, revealed the proportion of "on time" scheduled flights fell at Manchester, while charter punctuality improved.
André
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Comet
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Post by Comet »

I think that operating smaller aircraft helps, both top airlines mentioned in that report have smaller types in their fleet, as Eastern operate Jetstreams. The smaller aircraft require less turn around time, I ahve seen that from experience at LCY with our first VLM flight. It landed a bit late, but owing to the quick fuelling and cleaning of the smaller aircraft it was able to load and depart on time.
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

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