Flight cancellations: airlines with fewest cancelled or delayed flights in 2022 - from Jet2 to Aer Lingus

Passengers have faced chaotic scenes at airports this year as the travel sector struggles to recover after the pandemic.

Staff shortages and other problems have seen a higher-than-average share of flights cancelled, while many more people have faced long delays.

And the misery is due to stretch into the summer, with a British Airways strike planned at Heathrow and EasyJet cancelling flights at Gatwick.

But the performance of different airlines has varied hugely, we can reveal.

Analysis of official aviation figures from the first four months of 2022 shows the airlines which managed to keep the most flights running on time.

Looking only at companies which scheduled at least 1,000 flights in and out of 25 major UK airports, the top performer was Norway’s low-cost carrier Norwegian.

Spokesperson Andreas Hjørnholm said they were “pleased that our focus to keep a very high level of punctuality is paying off”.

He said: “Particularly our business travellers value our high punctuality as they are often dependent on us for reaching important business meetings in time and we are pleased to report that over the last months we have seen a month-by-month incline in demand from our corporate customers.

“There is no doubt that the competition between airlines to attract pilots and cabin crew is fierce and has become increasingly intense. We currently have the staff we need in order to operate our very busy summer schedule and we have been recruiting throughout the last year to ensure that we have the people we need.”

Read more:UK’s worst airports for disruption revealed, from Manchester to Southampton

Here are the top ten most reliable airlines for January to April 2022, based on punctuality measures taken at 25 major UK airports.

An on-time flight is classed as one which isn’t cancelled at short notice and leaves or arrives no more than 15 minutes late.