Dreaming of a stress-free holiday? You may want to check your destination first, as your choice of airport could mean your delays are worse than anticipated. New data from this summer has revealed the European hotspots where travellers are most likely to face lengthy flight delays.European air traffic management coordinator Eurocontrol has analysed departure punctuality at the top 30 busiest airports in the network, revealing which is worst for delays. At the bottom of the list, with the highest proportion of delayed departures, is Lisbon, with 52 per cent departure punctuality. Humberto Delgado Airport has faced much criticism in the past. Last year, it was even voted the world’s second most stressful airport. Humberto Delgado Airport Lisbon has been ranked as the worst for delaysMeanwhile, in second place in this study, with 53 per cent of flights on time, is Zurich.That is followed in third place by Palma de Mallorca, also with 53 per cent punctuality, but with a higher rate of non-operated schedules.Taking fourth place in the list is Athens, at 54 per cent.Rounding out the top five is Manchester Airport, with 55 per cent departure punctuality.It comes after this year Manchester T3 was declared the UK’s worst airport, with a 52 per cent customer score. The aviation hub scored just two stars in all categories surveyed, including ‘Cleanliness’ and ‘Seating’.One customer declared the airport, which primarily operates Ryanair flights, as ‘quite appalling for a supposedly modern airport’, reporting two-hour check-in queues due to broken machines, 20-minute queues for cafes and toilets, and also complaining that there is ‘nowhere to sit’. It’s not the only UK-based hub to make the list. London Gatwick, at 59 per cent, also made the bottom ten airports in terms of punctuality. In the bottom five, and the worst in the UK, was Manchester Airport Departure punctuality (best to worst) 1. Stockholm Arlanda, 82%2. Oslo, 81%3. Istanbul, 81%4. Copenhagen, 80%5. Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, 80%6. London Heathrow, 76%7. Antalya, 74%8. Vienna, 74%9. Amsterda,. 70% 10. Dublin, 69% 11. Warsaw Chopin, 69%12. Berlin Brandenburg, 68%13. Frankfurt, 67%14. Brussels, 66%15. Munich, 66% 16. Paris Orly, 65%17. London Stansted, 65%18. Geneva, 64%19. Madrid Barajas, 63%20. Malaga, 62%21. Paris Charles de Gaulle, 60%22. Barcelona, 60%23. London Gatwick, 59%24. Milan Malpensa, 59%25. Rome Fiumicino, 56%26. Manchester, 55%27. Athens, 54%28. Palma de Mallorca, 53%29. Zurich, 53%30. Lisbon, 52% <!- – ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/travel/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 – ->
Overall for European airports this summer, departure punctuality was 66.3 per cent, better than last year by 2.4 percentage points. Despite some persistent hotspots, overall improvements have been seen in terms of delays compared to 2025 in Austria, Croatia, France, Germany and Hungary.The study also revealed traffic distribution was influenced throughout summer 2026 by the Middle East crisis. This meant lower traffic in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, but a high increase in traffic in Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia – and continuous growth in south-west Europe.