The research looked at the airlines with the highest number of delays, as well as the airlines that are most likely to have delays by percentage.
Research from Which? looked at flights in and out of the UK between June 2017 to June 2018 and found that more than 13,000 flights were delayed by three hours or longer.
These delays affected 1.3million passengers – some 3,500 people per day.
EasyJet came in first place, with 2,618 delayed flights in the last year, while Ryanair came in second place with 1,868.
British Airways came in third place, with 1,668 flights delayed.
Long-haul airlines with the most delays
Norwegian (2.4 per cent)
Thomas Cook Airlines (1.8 per cent)
TUI (1.6 per cent)
Air India (1.5 per cent)
Air Canada (1.3 per cent)
British Airways (0.9 per cent)
United Airlines (0.9 per cent)
American Airlines (0.7 per cent)
Delta Airlines (0.6 per cent)
Cathay Pacific Airways (0.6 per cent)
Medium-hail airlines with the most delayed flights
Thomas Cook Airlines (1.2 per cent)
TUI (1.1 per cent)
Saudi Arabian Airlines (1 per cent)
British Airways (0.7 per cent)
El Al (0.7 per cent)
Jet2 (0.7 per cent)
Monarch Airlines (0.7 per cent)
Thomson Airlines (0.6 per cent)
Ryanair (0.6 per cent)
EasyJet (0.6 per cent)
However it is worth noting that these airlines operate the most flights, which means there is more chance they will have delays.
The research also looked at the airlines that are most likely to be delayed by percentage.
Coming top for long-haul delays was Norwegian, with 2.4 per cent of its flight delayed over three hours.
This was followed by Thomas Cook, with 1.8 per cent delayed, and TUI with 1.6 per cent.
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With medium-haul flights, Thomas Cook was worst with 1.2 per cent delayed, TUI was second with 1.1 per cent delayed and Saudi Arabian Airlines came in third with 1 per cent delayed.
Icelandair was the worst for short-haul delays, with 1.7 per cent of its flights delayed by three hours or more, followed by Aurigny in second place with 1.6 per cent.
TUI came third, with 1.4 per cent of its planes delayed.
Short-haul airlines with the most delayed flights
Icelandair (1.7 per cent)
Aurigny Air (1.6 per cent)
TUI (1.4 per cent)
Eastern Airways (1.3 per cent)
Stobart Air (1.2 per cent)
Thomas Cook (1.2 per cent)
Vueling Airlines (1.1 per cent)
Blue Air Transport (1.1 per cent)
Blue Islands (1 per cent)
Longanair (o.9 per cent)
BMI British Midland (0.9 per cent)
Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services, said: "Severe delays can be a complete nightmare and totally wreck a long-awaited trip abroad, especially if it means you're stuck in an airport terminal for hours on end.
"Passengers are often entitled to compensation when airlines get it wrong."
He continued: “It is vital that automatic compensation is introduced across the industry so that people no longer have to jump through hoops to get what they are owed.”
Sun Online Travel has contacted the airlines mentioned for comment.
A Thomas Cook Airlines spokesperson said: “Our first priority is to fly our customers on holiday safely. We are very sorry to those customers who have experienced delays.
"Thomas Cook Airlines does not routinely cancel flights and will only do so in extreme circumstances.
"Therefore, when external factors such as industrial action, severe weather, congestion in the European airspace, or when aircraft technical issues occur, there can be a knock-on impact as we do our best to get our flights back on schedule.”
A British Airways spokesperson said: "We are the most punctual of the three big short-haul carriers flying from London.
An easyJet spokesperson said: “easyJet operates the largest number of flights per year of any UK airline (around 90 million passengers this year) and flies in the busiest airports and most congested airspace in Europe. In 2018 easyJet will operate 228% more flights compared to 2009.
An Icelandair spokesperson said: “Icelandair is aware of the flight delays that have been highlighted within the Which? report published today.
"The safety of our passengers is our first priority and therefore on occasions the airline has to delay flights in order to provide the safest possible conditions for flights to take off and land.
"We are continuously working to improve our performance and hope customers will see these efforts reflected in their upcoming flight experiences with Icelandair.”
A Norwegian spokesperson said: “Norwegian carried more than 1.7 million long-haul passengers in the year to June 2018 from London Gatwick, Edinburgh and Belfast Airports with a vast majority of our customers departing and arriving on schedule.
We previously revealed that Luton has been named the worst airport in the UK for the third year in a row.
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