BOURNEMOUTH Airport has a better record for punctuality than any rival terminal in the mainland UK, new figures suggest.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has added Bournemouth to the list of airport where timings were monitored.

Southampton is also among the 14 airports added to the 10 where punctuality was already being assessed.

The CAA is now monitoring 90 per cent of passenger flights and 97 per cent of journeys in the UK. They are assessed for ‘on-time performance’ and average delay, with the information published to help passengers make comparisons between UK airports.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, 87 per cent of Bournemouth flights were on time – up two per cent on the same period the previous year. Only Belfast had a better record, at 89 per cent.

The average delay at Bournemouth was nine minutes, compared with a national figure of 12 minutes.

Southampton saw 79 per cent of flights on time, in line with the national total, while Gatwick scored only 76 per cent and Heathrow had the weakest performance at 74 per cent.

Iain Osborne, group director for regulatory policy at the CAA, said: “The CAA is here to look after passengers’ interests and we want to make sure people can make more informed decisions about which airport they would like to fly from.

“Our expanded coverage means even more air passengers can now see for themselves how well the country's busiest airports are performing against flight punctuality.”

A Bournemouth Airport spokesperson said: “We are delighted that Bournemouth has the best on time performance in mainland UK.

“We put the customer at the centre of everything we do, so on time performance is key to us at Bournemouth Airport.

“We work closely with all of our third parties on site including airlines, ground handlers and immigration officials to ensure the passenger journey through the airport is always of a high quality.”

Bournemouth had only 3,000 flights in 2014 – joint lowest among the monitored airports along with Doncaster Sheffield.

Heathrow saw 467,000 flights and Gatwick 232,000,with 1.73million flights at the 24 monitored airports.