Airline punctuality is declining in Europe, but the Zaventem Airport in the Belgium capital is performing well, the Association of European Airports (AEA) said.

In its airline punctuality report for the second quarter of this year, AEA said the Brussels international airport has recorded the least amount of delays with 13.8 percent of departures affected.

It was followed by Geneva and Istanbul, then Helsinki and Vienna.

Of the 27 major European airports surveyed by AEA, Madrid was the most delay-affected, as it had been in the previous quarter, with 28.7 percent of flights delayed.

Next was the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, followed by the two London airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, and Barcelona. All these airports had delay rates of above 25 percent.

AEA said the second quarter of this year was the seventh consecutive quarter in which the amount of delays increased. In general, 20.2 percent of flights within Europe encountered a delay of more than 15 minutes in the second quarter.

This was up from the 18.1 percent delay rate in the second quarter of last year. In 2003 and 2004 the figure was 16.6 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2006)