Decrease in airport traffic not all bad

With all the doom and gloom news about the decline in both passenger and freight traffic across the world’s airports, an unexpected benefit of the downturn has emerged.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as a result of a 9% decline in UK flight numbers from January to March 2009, and an 11% drop in total passengers during the same period, overall flight punctuality at many of the regional and major UK airports including Heathrow, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester has increased.

Overall on-time performance is defined by flights that arrive early to 15 minutes late. Of scheduled flights arriving at UK airports monitored by the CAA, the percentage deemed to be on-time has increased from 70% to 81% compared with the same period in 2008.

Increases in on-time performance is nothing but good news for travellers who need to collect their car from an airport parking facility within the booked time or who need to catch a connecting flight or train service.