Stansted is second worst airport in the WORLD claims new report (and easyJet is 4th worst airline)
Meanwhile Virgin Atlantic is the only UK carrier on the table to feature in the top ten in the world - which Qatar Airways topped
THE best and worst airlines and airports in the world have been ranked in new research.
The study looked at the quality of service and punctuality of 72 airlines and 141 airports across the globe – and it throws up some sorry-looking results for the UK.
Stansted was been ranked as the world’s second worst airport in 140th place in the study – the only one that fared worse is Kuwait International.
Both Edinburgh and Manchester airports were also in the bottom ten airports globally, while Gatwick was in the bottom 20.
Findings from the airline compensation company looked at factors like plane punctuality and how good their customer service is.
The company also used data from Twitter to measure "customer sentiment" and looked at how quickly airlines processed claims from dissatisfied customers.
But While AirHelp says that its data is “comprehensive and accurate,” Stansted refutes these claims.
A London Stansted spokesperson told Sun Online Travel: “As with their previous PR initiatives, this latest survey from AirHelp is purely a self-serving exercise based on very little or no substantive evidence and designed to promote a company seeking to take a share of flight compensation claims.”
They refute these claims as “flawed and inaccurate”, pointing out several reasons why the research doesn’t stand up.
The main variable used was the “on time performance” factor – which Stansted says is something that airports have “little control” over.
They told us: “Flights arrive and depart late at airports for reasons beyond our control, just as trains arrive late in train stations for reasons beyond the control of train station operators.”
Stansted also said that AirHelp had left several large UK airports like Luton off the list entirely and that the company hadn't explained how they had judged social media sentiment.
The same report also showed that easyJet is the fourth worst airline in the world, while Ryanair comes in as the fifth worst in the world.
Qatar Airways is the number one airline in the world, followed by Lufthansa, Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Austrian Airlines and Aegean Airlines.
Qantas is as number eight, and Air Malta is at number nine.
Meanwhile Virgin Atlantic is the only UK-based airline to feature in the top ten, while British Airways comes in 21st place on the list.
Thomas Cook was ranked 51st place and Jet2 came in 61st place on the list.
A rep for easyJet told us: “We absolutely do not recognise these findings.
"EasyJet takes its responsibilities under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 extremely seriously and will always pay compensation when it is due.
“We offer simple webforms easily found on our website and are currently processing valid claims in less than 21 days and have plans to further improve this payment processing time later this year.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for our passengers to claim with us directly rather than sacrificing a significant portion of their compensation to other organisations like AirHelp unnecessarily.”
Responding to the news that Manchester airport was also in the bottom ten airports globally, a spokesperson told us: “As with their previous PR initiatives, this latest survey from AirHelp is purely a self-serving exercise based on very little or no substantive evidence and designed to promote a company seeking to take a share of flight compensation claims.
“Looking at on-time performance for this kind of survey is flawed as delays can be down to a variety of reasons including ATC strikes and airline related issues.
"For example during the time frame covered there were a number of days when bad weather hit the airport.
"During the time frame measured, only 1.8 per cent of flights suffered delays relating to airport controlled factors.
A rep for Ryanair said: "We don’t comment on fabricated ‘rankings’ produced by compensation chasing websites to generate publicity and we are amazed that newspapers publish them.
"The fact that almost 90 per cent of our flights are on time and we receive the fewest complaints highlights how irrelevant these ‘statistics’ are.
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"Furthermore our latest Rate My Flight statistics, based on a survey of real Ryanair customers in January, February and March, showed that over 92 per cent rated their experience as good, very good or excellent, figures which speak for themselves.”
Sun Online Travel has contacted Ryanair, Edinburgh and Gatwick airports for comment.
We previously revealed that Newcastle Airport has won the Best Small Airport award at the annual Airport Service Quality Awards.