Airline passengers collectively endured the equivalent of 161 years stuck in planes due to delays in 2025, with Ryanair identified as the world's worst offender for late flights, according to a major new analysis.
The Global Leaders in Lateness
Flight-tracking app Flighty, which analysed data from over 22 million global journeys, found that a significant 29 percent of Ryanair's services were delayed this year. The Irish budget carrier's sheer volume of passengers meant it was responsible for the most total hours of delays worldwide.
Easyjet and Air France shared the same poor delay percentage, tying for second and third place respectively. The fourth spot was taken by US ultra-low-cost carrier Frontier, with 28 percent of its flights arriving late. Germany's Lufthansa and Australia's Qantas followed closely behind, both with 26 percent of flights delayed.
The Cost of Congestion and Queues
The report delved deeper than simple departure and arrival times, examining the crucial gap between a flight's scheduled arrival and the moment passengers finally disembarked. This metric captured the frustrating time spent waiting on the tarmac after landing.
Flighty attributed these extended waits to a combination of factors including airport holding patterns, crew or equipment issues, taxiway congestion, runway queues, and adverse weather. These problems extended the travel time for a remarkable 30 percent of all flights analysed.
"[This metric] captures all those extra minutes spent sitting, waiting, and muttering, 'Get me off this plane,'" Flighty stated in a summary of its findings.
Financial Turbulence from Delays
The impact of these pervasive delays extends far beyond passenger frustration, hitting the wallets of both travellers and airlines. Research cited from the International Air Transport Association and Eurocontrol indicates that air traffic control delays alone cost European passengers and airlines a colossal $6.8 billion between late 2024 and October 2025.
The top ten most-delayed airlines for the year were rounded out by KLM (25%), Air Canada (25%), JetBlue (25%), and Southwest Airlines (25%). In the US market, after Frontier, the worst performers were American Airlines (24%) and Alaska Airlines (23%).
The data paints a stark picture of modern air travel, where systemic congestion and operational hiccups are costing the global economy billions and wasting millions of precious hours of passenger time.
