Southend ran 83.9% of flights on time from April to June, first of 25 UK airports. In June it beat Stansted by 20 points. We read the CAA's own tables.

London Southend ran 83.9% of its flights within 15 minutes of schedule between April and June, the best figure of any of the 25 UK airports the Civil Aviation Authority reports on. The UK average across every reporting airport in the same three months was 74.0%.

The airport announced the result on 11 September, rounding it to 84% and calling itself the UK’s most punctual (London Southend Airport). We went to the CAA’s own monthly on time performance tables and added the quarter up ourselves (CAA punctuality statistics 2026). The claim stands, and the tables carry three things the announcement leaves out.

Line chart of flights on time at Southend, Stansted and all UK airports from January to June 2026

The table, in full

These are the April to June figures, weighted across the three monthly tables. “On time” means within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, and the CAA counts arrivals and departures together at the airport doing the reporting.

Airport On time Average delay Flights
Southend 83.9% 8.2 min 1,733
Aberdeen 83.0% 10.5 min 7,411
Liverpool 82.5% 9.5 min 10,853
Belfast International 80.0% 11.5 min 12,362
Belfast City 79.2% 12.2 min 8,015
Heathrow 77.0% 12.7 min 119,415
Luton 74.1% 14.3 min 29,794
All UK airports 74.0% 14.4 min 521,292
London City 73.2% 13.7 min 11,588
Gatwick 73.0% 15.1 min 69,973
Stansted 72.1% 16.0 min 49,870
Manchester 66.1% 18.1 min 53,388

Southend’s 8.2 minute average delay is the shortest of all 25. Two of its 1,733 flights were cancelled in the whole quarter, both in June. Across the UK the cancellation rate was 0.91%, which is roughly 4,700 flights.

One: this is a very small airport, and that matters

Southend handled 1,733 flights in three months. Heathrow handled 119,415, Stansted 49,870, Gatwick 69,973. Only Teesside, on 695 flights, reported fewer than Southend.

A single-runway airport running one airline’s leisure schedule has a far easier punctuality job than a hub juggling long haul connections and slot pressure. That is not an argument against the number. It is the reason the number is achievable, and it is worth saying plainly before anyone treats the table as a like-for-like contest.

Two: the gap opened up because everyone else collapsed in June

Southend did improve. It ran 79.4% on time in April to June 2025 and 83.9% in the same months this year, a gain of 4.5 points, while the UK as a whole slipped from 75.0% to 74.0%.

But the month by month figures tell a sharper story:

Month Southend All UK airports Stansted
April 87.4% 81.7% 79.1%
May 82.6% 75.2% 75.7%
June 82.0% 65.9% 61.9%

Southend’s own performance got slightly worse across the quarter, from 87.4% in April to 82.0% in June. The UK average fell almost 16 points over the same three months, and Stansted fell more than 17. In June, Southend was 20.1 points ahead of Stansted and 16.1 ahead of the national average. Holding roughly steady while the rest of the system deteriorated is what put Southend top, more than any improvement of its own.

Three: it was third, not fourth, and the two airports above it were not the ones named

Doing the same sum for January to March, Southend was third on 81.2%, behind Liverpool and Newcastle, both on 81.8%. The airport’s announcement says it overtook Liverpool and Aberdeen. On the monthly tables Aberdeen was tenth in the first quarter, on 78.7%, and climbed to second in the second. Either way, Southend has moved from third to first.

Its lead over Heathrow, which is the comparison the airport makes because Heathrow is the next best performing London airport, went from 2.1 points in the first quarter to 6.9 in the second.

Which routes actually run on time

The CAA’s detailed tables break the figures down by route. Across April to June, in both directions:

Route On time Average delay Flights
Las Palmas 97.4% 1.4 min 78
Pisa 92.3% 4.1 min 52
Almeria 92.3% 3.5 min 52
Tenerife South 89.7% 5.8 min 78
Antalya 88.0% 5.9 min 50
Paris Charles de Gaulle 87.7% 6.4 min 114
Amsterdam 87.4% 5.7 min 119
Alicante 79.9% 11.2 min 139
Malaga 79.8% 9.1 min 183
Barcelona 77.8% 12.7 min 90
Palma de Mallorca 75.2% 13.2 min 186

Palma is both the busiest route out of Southend and the least punctual. Malaga and Alicante, the next two busiest, are the only other routes that ran below 80%.

There is one more split worth knowing. easyJet operates out of Southend under more than one air operator’s certificate, and they did not perform alike: easyJet UK ran 87.4% of its 1,216 Southend flights on time, easyJet Europe 75.2% of its 460. BA CityFlyer ran 14 flights at 85.7%.

What the airport says happens next

The airport says five routes start from the end of October, to Belfast City, Budapest, Edinburgh, Lyon and Sharm El Sheikh, and that its summer services to Jersey and Munich will run through the winter, taking the winter network to 26 destinations and the year to 30.

Chief executive Jude Winstanley said the team “were simply not prepared to settle for third place in the UK CAA rankings”, and that the result came “while continuing to be the UK’s fastest-growing airport”.

Growth is the thing to watch against these figures. The quarter measured here was Southend at 1,733 flights. Five new routes and a bigger winter timetable mean more flights per runway hour next year, and punctuality is usually the first thing a growing airport loses.

One precise point about the number

The airport’s announcement says 84% of its flights “departed within 15 minutes of schedule”. The CAA measure it is quoting covers arrivals and departures together. On the detailed tables, Southend’s 858 departures in the quarter ran 83.5% on time and its 873 arrivals 84.4%. The combined figure is 83.9%.

What it means for you

  • If you are choosing between Southend and Stansted for a Spanish beach route this autumn, the June figures are the ones to look at: 82.0% against 61.9%. The gap is real and it is large.
  • If you are flying to Palma, Malaga, Alicante or Barcelona, build in more time than the headline figure suggests. Those four are the slowest routes out of Southend.
  • Check which easyJet you are booked on. The operator’s name appears on the booking confirmation. easyJet Europe flights out of Southend ran twelve points worse than easyJet UK ones last quarter.
  • Getting there. The airport has its own station on the Liverpool Street line, so the train is usually the simplest route in; our Southend to London trains guide covers the two lines and the fares. Two new bus routes, the 62A and 62B, are planned but have no start date. If you are driving and parking off site, check our parking in Southend guide and the current roadworks and travel page first.

Sources