Which airports in Portugal have the most flight delays?

A new analysis has compared flights at 14 Portuguese airports and found that the nine airports in the Azores had the highest percentages of flights delayed by more than an hour. At the other end of the ranking, Porto Santo recorded the lowest percentage, followed closely by Madeira and Faro.

The study was carried out by air passenger rights company AirAdvisor and looked at flights between 22 October 2025 and 22 October 2026. The airports were ranked by the proportion of flights delayed by more than 60 minutes, Jornal Económico reported.

Azores airports top the list

Santa Maria Airport recorded the highest proportion of long delays in the study, with 10.89% of the flights analysed delayed by more than an hour. That is just over one in ten flights.

São Jorge followed with 10.29%, while Pico was close behind at 10.12%.

The remaining six airports in the Azores also recorded figures above 7%. Graciosa had a rate of 9.25%, followed by Horta at 8.90%, Lajes at 8.62% and Ponta Delgada at 8.41%. Corvo recorded 7.77% and Flores 7.27%.

For people travelling between the islands or connecting to a flight to the mainland, a delay can mean more than spending an extra hour at the airport. It can also affect the rest of the journey, particularly if there is another flight to catch.

The figures show how often longer delays occurred during the period studied. They do not mean that every flight from the Azores was delayed: at each of the nine airports, the majority of flights in the analysis were not delayed by more than an hour.

How did Faro, Lisbon and Porto compare?

For passengers travelling through the Algarve, Faro Airport had one of the lowest rates in the study. AirAdvisor found that 4.18% of its flights were delayed by more than an hour, placing it just behind Madeira and Porto Santo.

At Lisbon Airport, the figure was 5.85%, while Porto recorded 4.82%. Both were lower than the percentages recorded at all nine airports in the Azores.

Porto Santo had the best result under this measure, with 3.77% of flights delayed by more than 60 minutes. Madeira Airport followed at 4.17%, just one-hundredth of a percentage point below Faro.

Fewer delays, but longer waits in Madeira

The percentage of delayed flights is only one part of the picture. For someone already waiting at the airport, the length of the delay matters too.

Madeira’s Cristiano Ronaldo Airport had one of the lowest proportions of flights delayed by more than an hour, but its reported average delay was the longest in the study, at 145 minutes—more than two hours and 20 minutes.

The reported average delays were 101 minutes in Lisbon and 107 minutes in Porto. The published report does not clearly explain which delayed flights were included when calculating those averages, so they should not be read as the average across every flight.

What can passengers do?

A delay of more than an hour does not automatically mean passengers are entitled to financial compensation. Depending on the circumstances, passengers who reach their final destination at least three hours late may be eligible for compensation under European rules.

The amount and eligibility depend on factors including the distance of the flight and the reason for the delay. In some circumstances, passengers may also be entitled to assistance such as food, drinks or accommodation if an overnight stay becomes necessary.

If your flight is disrupted, it is worth keeping your booking details, boarding pass and receipts, and asking the airline for information about the delay and any assistance available.

For those planning a journey with a connection, leaving some extra time between flights could also help make an unexpected delay less stressful.