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Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of Smart With Points. I'm Jack, and I'm here to help you navigate the world of travel using miles and points. Today, we're diving into something that affects every single one of us who fly regularly: delays. Specifically, we're looking at Flighty's brand new Global Passport Report for twenty twenty-five, which has just revealed which airlines are most likely to leave you sitting at the gate, refreshing your phone and wondering what happened to your 'on-time' departure. Spoiler alert: Ryanair has topped the global list. But stick around, because there's also a fascinating new metric that measures exactly how long you're stuck waiting to actually get off the plane after landing. Let's get into it.
So, Flighty, the popular flight tracking app, has just released its first-ever Global Passport Report, and the numbers are genuinely eye-opening for anyone who spends a lot of time in the air. The report analyses tens of millions of flights from Flighty's user base throughout twenty twenty-five, revealing everything from total distance travelled to, crucially for us frequent flyers, which airlines are most likely to leave you twiddling your thumbs at the gate.
First, let's talk about the sheer scale of what Flighty users have been up to this year. It's genuinely staggering. In twenty twenty-five alone, users tracked over twenty-two million flights, covering thirty-four billion miles and spending a cumulative seventy-eight million hours in the air. To put that in perspective, that's eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-one years of flight time. As someone who's been racking up award flights this year, those numbers really hit home. Every Avios redemption, every status run, every 'quick trip' to mainland Europe, it all adds up. And apparently, we're not alone in our obsession with getting airborne.
Now for the part that'll likely spark some debate. When ranking airlines globally by delays, Ryanair came out on top as the most delayed carrier among Flighty users. For UK listeners, this might not come as a massive shock. We've all experienced the Ryanair shuffle, that peculiar dance of hope and disappointment when you're watching the departures board. Though to be fair, when you're paying twenty-nine pounds return to Malaga, a bit of unpredictability comes with the territory.
Across the pond, the top five most delayed US airlines were Frontier Airlines at twenty-eight percent, JetBlue Airways at twenty-five percent, Southwest Airlines at twenty-five percent, American Airlines at twenty-four percent, and Alaska Airlines at twenty-three percent. That American Airlines figure is worth noting if you're booking Avios redemptions to the US through oneworld partners. While BA's transatlantic operations aren't included in this specific ranking, it's useful context when weighing up connection times.
Here's the sobering bit: Flighty calculated that passengers collectively lost three point nine million hours to delays in twenty twenty-five. That's time spent waiting at gates, sitting on tarmacs, and watching departure times creep ever further into the future. For those of us with tight connections or lounge access we're desperate to maximise, these delays can be properly disruptive. It's why I always check estimated security times before heading to the airport. No point rushing through traffic only to spend two hours in the terminal because your flight's been pushed back.
Now, here's my favourite part of the report. Flighty has introduced a brand new metric called 'Get Me Off This Plane', yes really, which measures the gap between your scheduled arrival time and when you actually get to step off the aircraft. We've all been there. The pilot announces you've landed ahead of schedule, and you feel a brief moment of joy, only to spend the next twenty-five minutes taxiing to a remote stand, waiting for a gate, or circling a congested taxiway. This metric captures all those invisible delays that don't show up in official on-time statistics but absolutely eat into your travel time. As a BA Gold member who values every minute of lounge access, I find this metric incredibly useful. That forty-minute buffer you thought you had for your connection? It might be rather tighter than you realised.
You might be wondering why a flight tracking app matters when you're focused on maximising Avios or tier points. Here's the thing: information is power in the points game. When you're booking award flights with tight connections, perhaps using Award Travel Finder to snag a hard-to-find business class seat, knowing which airlines and routes are prone to delays can help you build in appropriate buffer time. It also matters for status runs. If you're cramming multiple flights into a short timeframe to hit BA Silver or Gold, the last thing you want is a delay cascading through your entire itinerary. I learned this the hard way during my tier point run earlier this year.
The good news is that you can download Flighty and build your own twenty twenty-five Passport for free. The app will compile your flight stats, showing your total distance, time in the air, most-visited airports, and yes, how many hours you've personally lost to delays. For Flighty Pro subscribers, there's even the ability to sync your entire flight history from Apple Calendar or bulk import past flights, handy if you want to see your lifetime stats.
So, what's my personal takeaway from all this? Build in more buffer time than you think you need, especially when connecting through busy hubs. And maybe download Flighty before your next trip. If nothing else, it'll give you something to obsessively refresh while you're stuck on the tarmac. Flighty's Global Passport Report is a fascinating snapshot of how we're all travelling in twenty twenty-five. The Ryanair delay revelation won't surprise many UK travellers, but the sheer scale of time lost to delays, and that new 'Get Me Off This Plane' metric, provides valuable context for anyone planning their next points adventure.
Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of Smart With Points. If you enjoyed today's discussion, please subscribe to the podcast on all major platforms, or head over to our website at smartwithpoints.co.uk to stay updated on all things miles and points. Safe travels, and may all your flights depart on time.
Looking for the best award flights? Use AwardTravelFinder.com to search availability across Qatar Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and more. Try it for free with our link in the shownotes.