Cathay Pacific most punctual airline

Cathay Pacific was the most punctual airline, with aircraft typically taking off just eight minutes behind schedule. The average delay across all flights were 16 minutes. Teh ranking features the 43 airliens with over  2, 000 flights from UK airports last year.

Vueling Airlines, the Spanish carrier,  has the worst punctuality of major airlines flying from UK airports as their departures were 31 minutes late on average last year according to Civil Aviation Authority data.

Thomas Cook Airlines had second worst performance with flights 24 minutes late, followed by Wizz Air 23minutes late, Norwegian Air UK  and Eurowings 22 minutes late.

A curling spokesman said the airline was badly affected by 22 days of strikes in Marseille, France.