Ronaldsway has been named as the most ‘disrupted’ airport in the British Isles.

A survey by Good Travel Management found that flights were delayed last year on average by 35 minutes and six seconds, 11 minutes higher than the national average of 24 minutes 6 seconds.

Gatwick Airport landed in second place, with an average delay of 33 minutes 37 seconds. By comparison, flights with Heathrow Airport, the UK’s busiest airport, were delayed by 25 minutes 41 seconds on average.

Isle of Man Airport also had the highest volume of cancellations than any other airport in 2023, with 5.2 percent of all flights cancelled.

The airport took the unprecedented step of closing the runway five times a day back in June last year due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.

These runway closures to allow for fatigue breaks reduced from five to two in August,. The airport is expected to lift them altogether later this year although an additional evening runway closure was brought in for two days last week due to multiple staff sickness in air traffic control.

In response to the survey results, a spokesperson for Ronaldsway said: ‘We’re committed to continuous improvement and better performance.

‘While 2023 presented challenges, many of which were beyond our control, we’ve proud to share that since the beginning of the year - January to May - only 2% of our flights have been delayed over one hour.’

Some 10% of flights were delayed by more than one hour last year, the same as Bristol and Luton and second only to Gatwick with a figure of 13%.

This year at Isle of Man Airport, 85% of flights were on time in January, 86% in February, 90% in March and 89% in April and May - that’s an average of 88% of flights off-stand within 15 minutes of the published time.

‘We’re dedicated to collaborating with airlines and third-party providers to keep improving,’ the spokesperson added.

Despite it being rated above average on Google reviews, averaging 4.0 stars, some passengers were clearly less than impressed.

One reviewer quoted in the survey described the airport as ‘a joke. Landed 60 min[utes] ago and stuck on a plane because there are no stairs or stairs of staff available for us to disembark’ while another described Ronsaldsway as ‘genuinely, one of the slowest airports I’ve ever used’.

The Isle of Man airport secured its place on the list after insurance firm Loveit Coverit compiled figures from the Civil Aviation Authority and ranked airports with the best and worst flight cancellation rates between June 1 and August 31 last year.