New study reveals which is the most congested airport in the UK including Edinburgh and London Gatwick

New research has determined which UK airport is the most congested
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If travel is one of your New Year’s resolutions you might find yourself looking to find the easiest airport to navigate, or the least congested one. Last year, airports saw the biggest influx in travellers since before the coronavirus pandemic causing mass cancellations and long waiting times.

Look no further as experts at Eurochange have you covered. A new study from the travel money expert company has revealed which major UK airports have the most congestion, based on average journey times throughout the year.

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Eurochange were able to determine which airport was the most congested by calculating journey times for each month of the year, from Google maps, based on a 30-mile trip, which is the average distance a UK resident lives from an airport, according to Statista, and then gave each an overall average time.

Their study found that Birmingham International Airport was found to have the shortest average travel time throughout the year at just 35 minutes.

In what was one of the most surprising discoveries, London Gatwick ranked a close second with an average journey time of 36.25 minutes. This is surprising due to the fact an estimated 850 flights take off daily, and the obvious factor that the airport is in London, the travel time is remarkably quick.

Aberdeen Dyce came in third with an average journey time of 37.5 minutes.

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Newcastle (42.5 minutes) and London Heathrow (47 minutes) completed the top five with the latter being higher up than expected, given it is the largest airport in the UK, and located towards the outskirts of the capital.

Glasgow Airport was close to cracking the top five, with surprisingly barely any difference between it and Heathrow, Glasgow had a marginally longer journey time of 47.7 minutes. Cardiff, Bristol and Manchester airports followed, with travel times to these airports coming in at around the 50-minute mark.

Easyjet was among airlines worst affected by cancellations this year (Picture: Ben Queenborough/PinPep)Easyjet was among airlines worst affected by cancellations this year (Picture: Ben Queenborough/PinPep)
Easyjet was among airlines worst affected by cancellations this year (Picture: Ben Queenborough/PinPep)

However, the airport that took the top spot was Scotland’s largest airport, Edinburgh, which was found to have an average journey time of almost an hour (59.3 minutes) to complete a 30 mile trip.. Around 313 flights leave the Scottish capital’s airport per day, making it the sixth busiest airport in the UK.

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