Which Are the Worst Airports in the UK?

16th September 2026

As winter approaches many skiers and snowboarders are booking flights but flying is not the experience it once was. Delays, disruption and dynamic pricing are the new norm. A new survey rates them. NEW

Manchester Airport creates the most challenges for travellers, with the lowest customer satisfaction in the country.

A new study has been released by Click Intelligence and compares all major UK airports and what problems people encounter there most often.

Manchester Airport is the worst air traffic hub in the country, with a 50/100 customer satisfaction score and over a third of flights getting delayed.
Exeter Airport sees flights are getting canceled the most at 4.5 times more often than in Glasgow or Cardiff.
Gatwick Airport cancels 102 flights a month on average, but these numbers are expected to grow significantly because of fuel shortages.

The study collected data on factors that are directly related to passenger stress, including flight disruptions, delays, congestion, unsatisfactory staff services, and lost luggage.

The passenger rating for services took into account a large variety of factors, from check-in queues to prices of food and cleaning services in the toilets.<

The Airport Stress Score was calculated by combining the key factors and assigning airports scores between 0 and 100, with 100 being the most challenging for travellers.

Here’s a quick look at the top 10 most stressful airports for travellers according to the survey:

Airport	Customer Satisfaction(out of 100)	Passenger Density (Pax per Acre)	Flight Cancellation Rate	% of Flights With Delays	Average Delay (min)	Airport Stress Score
Manchester	50	23,261	0.34	34.5	17.8	95.2
Luton	51	17,097	0.18	24.5	12.9	77.3
Birmingham	57	16,877	0.64	30	14.9	77
Heathrow	57	27,929	1.23	22.5	13.4	74.2
Cardiff Wales	68	1,637	0.77	35	24.6	72.4
Gatwick	56	25,264	0.42	25.4	13.6	71.3
Bristol	57	22,193	0.26	26.9	13.9	71
Stansted	53	12,667	0.18	24.3	12.7	65.2
Exeter	80	951	3.68	28.5	13.6	60.5
Glasgow	63	11,236	0.77	21.3	11.5	59.2

You can find the full report findings by following this link.

1. Manchester Airport

- Customer satisfaction: 50/100
- Passenger density: 23.2K per acre
- Flight cancellation rate: 0.34%
- Flights with delays: 34.5%
- Average delay: 17.8 minutes
- Airport stress score: 95.2/100

Manchester Airport causes the most inconvenience for travellers, with the lowest customer satisfaction in the country, at 50 out of 100.

Food and shop pricing get the lowest scores in passengers’ feedback, with a lack of comfortable seats near the gates being the second most popular grievance.

Over a third of all flights leaving the airport depart with a delay (34.5%), and roughly 1 in 300 flights is canceled altogether.

2. Luton Airport

In second place is Luton Airport, where passengers are almost as unhappy about their travel experiences as at Manchester Airport, with 51/100 satisfaction.

Over 18 million travellers pass through this hub annually, and 24.5% of them have to face flight delays.

On average, airplanes depart 13 minutes late, which can still be enough to affect connected flights.

3. Birmingham Airport

Birmingham is the third most challenging airport for British travellers, with canceled flights almost twice as common as in Manchester.

One in 150 airplanes doesn’t leave at all, and3 in 10 are late to depart and arrive.

The planes are usually late by 15 minutes, and travellers have to wait longer than at Luton Airport.
4. Heathrow

Heathrow Airport takes fourth spot, with the highest rate of cancelled flights, more than 1 in 100.

Over 84.5 million people fly through Heathrow every year, which amounts to a crowd density of 27.9K people per acre.

Despite being the largest airport in the UK, it leaves customers as satisfied as those who fly through Birmingham, with a 57/100 score.

Food prices get the worst reviews, and many passengers complain about lost luggage and bad seating conditions.

5. Cardiff Wales Airport

Cardiff Airport rounds up the top 5 UK hubs that cause travellers the most problems, with 35% of flights getting delayed, the highest rate in the country.

Local passengers also have to wait the longest for their planes, at 24.6minutes on average. Flight cancellations are also much more common than in Birmingham, Luton, or Manchester, with roughly 1 in 130 planes not departing.

“Airports struggle with the number of passengers, and even when they expand, the construction sites disrupt travel between the gates,” said the Co-founder and Director at Click Intelligence, James Owen.

“Heathrow, despite being the busiest airport, handles its travellers in one of the worst ways, because they treat all complaints as separate issues instead of structural problems that no small fixes will help.”

PlanetSKI has flown in and out of virtually every ski gateway airport in Europe.

In a completely unscientific judgement here is the worst, and the best.