London Gatwick Airport has been ranked the third worst airport in the world.
In a recent study by AirHelp, a company known for assisting passengers with delayed and cancelled flight claims, it revealed that the airport was trailing at a shocking 239 place out of 239 airports assessed.
The ranking was based on an evaluation of airports in 69 countriesand measured by three critical criteria: on-time performance, customer opinion and food and shopping experiences.
With an AirHelp score of 6.53, Gatwick narrowly avoided the bottom spot but still fell significantly behind its UK counterparts and global peers.
The comes after ongoing frustrations from passengers over reliability and operational efficiency, which continue to plague the UK’s second-largest airport.
The ranking brings Gatwick into a spotlight often dominated by London Heathrow, which, despite its reputation for congestion, fared better in the AirHelp study.
However, Gatwick’s stronger points were in customer opinions and its variety of food and shopping options could provide a foundation for improvement.
Last year Gatwick also earned the title of the worst airport in the UK for flight delays according to an investigation by the PA news agency.
Analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data revealed that departures from Gatwick were delayed by an average of nearly 27 minutes in 2023. This is the highest figure for any UK airport.
The delays were exacerbated by a combination of air traffic control (ATC) shortages across Europe and staffing issues within Gatwick’s own control tower.