EasyJet’s evening service from the Ronaldsway to Gatwick is the one most likely to be delayed, according to an air travel watchdog.

This was brought into sharp focus by the severe overnight delay to last Sunday’s service, which eventually operated 18 hours later than planned.

TravelWatch’s own punctuality statistics for the last two months (mid-May to Mid-July) show that the evening service to and from Gatwick is the most delay-prone, with just 50% of flights operating within 15 minutes of the scheduled times, with delays averaging 33 minutes.

TravelWatch says it is continuing to press the DoI for the monthly publication of our airlines’ on-time performance as they do with passenger carryings, so far without success,

But a spokesman said: ’We understand that this is now scheduled to start with the May 2017 figures, which will be a very welcome move.

’Meanwhile, as not all airlines are as good as they might be in advertising passengers’ rights to compensation, it might be helpful to remind travellers that they are, in almost all circumstances, entitled to automatic and early compensation for delays of over three hours.

’The diificulties sometimes encountered in obtaining this, or the time taken to process any claims, are probably one of the largest parts of our "postbag".’

Airline punctuality statistics recently published for 2016 by the Official Airline Guide show contrasting results for the island’s two major carriers.

Flybe achieved some impressive results.

The survey covers all the world’s airlines, large and small, and Flybe was ranked no lower than sixth most punctual overall - worldwide.

Among European airlines it was the second most punctual, only KLM beating them with 87.9% of flights against Flybe’s 86.6% operating on schedule (which is, in OAG speak, within 15 minutes of the published schedule time).

EasyJet did not appear in the ’top airlines’ rating, with the low cost carriers table being headed by Monarch, with an on-time performance of 85.7%, with easyJet rated 16 out of 20, with a performance of 74.7%

Full details are available on this link from UK Citizens Advice website http://bit.ly/1nwwZvp.

Travelwatch advises that both the Office of Fair Trading and the Department of Infrastructure can be contacted in cases of real difficulty in obtaining due compensation, if all conditions are met.