Delays at Stansted were, on average, a full six minutes longer than those at the UK’s next poorest-performing airports, Luton and Birmingham, where average delays came in at about 19 minutes.

Gatwick was fourth at 18 minutes and Manchester and Jersey joint fifth at 16 minutes. Passengers at Edinburgh, Belfast International, Southend and Glasgow all faced average waits of 15 minutes.

Belfast City airport showed the best performance with an average delay of eight minutes, followed by Liverpool John Lennon (10 minutes), and Doncaster Sheffield, Exeter and Bournemouth (13 minutes).

The average delay at Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, was 13 minutes.

Stansted, the UK’s fourth busiest airport, said adverse weather and air traffic control issues had affected its on-time performance in 2018.

The analysis, by the Press Association, looked at scheduled and charter flights from 24 major UK airports. The average delay across all 24 was 16 minutes.

Consumer champion Which? has called for airlines to introduce automatic compensation for passengers affected by delays, citing knock-on effects such as missed connections and transfers.