Lisbon Airport Ranked Worst in Europe for Flight Punctuality — Only 49% of Departures Left on Time in 2025

Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport recorded the lowest departure punctuality rate of any major airport in Europe last year, with just 49 percent of flights leaving on time, according to Eurocontrol's 2025 annual performance review published this week. The finding places the Portuguese capital at the bottom of Europe's top 20 busiest hubs — and at the bottom of the entire continent — as the aviation industry braces for another demanding summer season.

The Numbers Behind Lisbon's Problem

Eurocontrol, the pan-European air traffic management coordinator, found that Lisbon experienced one of the sharpest drops in departure punctuality of any European airport during 2025. The 49 percent on-time departure rate means that more than half of all flights leaving Lisbon were delayed — a worse performance than notoriously congested hubs such as Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, and Rome Fiumicino.

Lisbon also ranked among the worst-affected airports for late arrivals, joining Athens and Luxembourg at the bottom of Eurocontrol's arrival punctuality table. The data paints a picture of an airport under severe operational strain, struggling to handle traffic volumes that have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

A Europe-Wide Problem, but Lisbon Stands Out

Across the European network, average departure punctuality stood at 70.1 percent in 2025, an improvement of 3.9 percentage points over 2024 — which Eurocontrol described as the worst summer for European aviation in 25 years. Arrival punctuality reached 76.1 percent, meaning roughly one in four flights across Europe still arrived late.

Average delay per flight fell to 14.6 minutes from 17.5 minutes in 2024, a 16 percent reduction. Yet Eurocontrol cautioned that performance remains below 2019 levels by two to three percentage points, and the EU's own capacity target of 0.9 minutes of en-route delay per flight was missed by nearly double, with actual performance at 1.7 minutes.

Total European flight numbers reached 100.2 percent of pre-pandemic levels, underscoring the structural mismatch between growing demand and airspace capacity that continues to drive delays.

Why Lisbon Is Struggling

Several factors converge at Humberto Delgado. The airport has a single runway and has been operating at or beyond its designed capacity for years. Portugal's tourism boom has added millions of passengers, while low-cost carriers have expanded their Lisbon operations aggressively. Ground handling disputes — the subject of a separate government intervention this week to extend contracts and avoid summer disruption — add another layer of complexity.

The long-promised new Lisbon airport, which would relieve pressure on Humberto Delgado, remains mired in political and environmental debate. The government confirmed earlier this year that a final site decision is expected by the end of 2026, but construction is unlikely to begin before the end of the decade at the earliest.

What Travellers Should Expect This Summer

Eurocontrol urged airports and airlines to tackle system congestion ahead of the summer peak, warning that improvements seen in 2025 were partly attributable to more favourable weather rather than structural fixes. For travellers flying through Lisbon, the message is clear: build in generous buffer time for connections, arrive early, and expect delays as the norm rather than the exception until capacity constraints are addressed.

The cost of Europe's delay problem is staggering. IATA estimates that flight delays across the continent have cost airlines and passengers EUR 16.1 billion since 2015, with French and German air navigation service providers responsible for more than half of all delay minutes during that period.