Although summer is already in full swing, we haven´t yet reached the peak of visitors, and many will be flying into and out of Costa Blanca Airport, or Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez Airport to give it the full title, unaware that the airport is in fourth place in terms of flight delays. But the good news is, it´s not as bad as Murcia!
In general terms, more than 300,000 flights were scheduled to take off from Spanish runways. However, almost 25% of these suffer some type of incidence, which translates into more than 10 million passengers affected -out of a total of 45 million-, and more than 900,000 entitled to financial compensation from the airlines.
AirHelp, the world’s largest organisation defending the rights of air passengers, reports on how the data has been in the first half of the year and how the main Spanish airports are operating.
The main conclusion is that there has been a clear decrease in air punctuality compared to the same period last year when with only three million trips in 2022, the flight interruption rate did not reach 18%.
According to AirHelp data, March has been the worst month to fly, closely followed by June, when there were around 30% interruptions. On the other hand, May and June have been the favourite months to travel, where more than 9 million people took a flight.
The airport with the best functioning has been that of Asturias. With 2,500 flights in total, and more than 2,000 of them leaving on time, the Asturian airport has become the best option to fly so far in 2023. Only 14% of the travellers who departed from this airport suffered some kind of delay or cancellation.
Jaén and La Palma follow the Asturian with approximately 85% compliance with their passengers. Although both are airports with less traffic, their commitment to punctuality has led them to position themselves at the top of this ranking.
The worst airports in the period studied are Murcia (Corvera), Costa Brava, and Málaga. The Murcia and Costa Brava airports, with barely 1,000 flights between January and June, only register 65% punctuality, having affected the flights of approximately 50,000 people.
Malaga airport has registered more than 25,000 flights in the first half of the year, which is equivalent to more than 3 million passengers who chose this airport. The Andalusian airport marked a punctuality rate of 70%, leaving more than 1 million people on the ground.
While Alicante is the fourth city with the most unpunctual airport in Spain. Of approximately 2.5 million travellers who use this airport, 72% left on time, which corresponds to 1.7 million punctual transfers, and we will leave you to work out for yourself how many that means were delayed. That way, if you are flying, it will give you something to do whilst you´re waiting.
