Why do we tolerate airline delays—but not train delays?

Every year, the headlines resurface: airport delays, flight cancellations, passengers stuck on the tarmac for hours. It’s become so normalised that we barely blink anymore. But imagine, for a moment, if the railways ran like the airlines do—there would be complete uproar.

Here's the irony: people love to complain about train delays. And yet, in reality, UK rail services run with remarkable punctuality—often in the high 90s percentile for on-time performance. Meanwhile, I genuinely can’t recall a single flight—domestic or international—that’s actually departed and arrived exactly when it was supposed to.

The frustrating part? Air travel is already a slog. Between the hours of prep, security queues, baggage checks, and endless waiting at gates, we then find ourselves stuck on the runway for what feels like forever. And yet we just accept it.

Yes, I get it—running an airline isn’t the same as managing a national rail network. The logistics are different, and there are far fewer planes in the sky than there are trains on tracks. But it still feels odd that we keep coming back to the same issues, year after year.

For those of us who rely on travel to do business, the uncertainty of flying—missed connections, delays, cancellations—makes mobility a real challenge. We’re trying to work, to meet people, to deliver value. But we’re too often left at the mercy of a system that just doesn’t seem to run on time.

Surely it’s time to raise the bar?