Simon Calder’s best and worst flights of the year

You may feel 2025 has not been the best of years. Yet for British travellers who like to fly, it has been easily the best yet since 2019 – the golden year for low fares and wide horizons. I have mostly flown on the usual suspects once again. In ascending order of frequency, I enjoyed safe, professional flights on Jet2, British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair. One of these made the “worst flights” list, but only because the plane didn’t take off.

I have also experienced a number of carriers for the first time: HiSky of Romania, Middle East Airlines of Lebanon and most notably the Global Airlines maiden flight from Glasgow to New York JFK. And I surrendered A$75 (£35) at the gate to Virgin Australia – yes, my cabin baggage was seriously over the limit.

The three worst flights of the year? The trio of cancellations on British Airways, Jetstar of Australia and Vueling of Spain. All were grounded at short notice, with the initial response from each airline unsatisfactory.

BA rebooked me on Qatar Airways via Doha, but a member of ground staff agreed that I should be on a nonstop flight on Singapore Airlines to comply with air passengers’ rights rules. I arrived in the city-state in time for the onward Jetstar service to Melbourne – only for that to be grounded due to pilot sickness. “Come back tomorrow”, was the message.

When ground staff refused to transfer me to sister airline Qantas, I rebooked at considerable expense on Emirates in business class – itself a disappointing experience.

Vueling, too, offered a flight the following day. The first I knew that the Barcelona plane was still on the ground in Spain and was not heading for Gatwick was when my boarding pass would not let me through the security gates at South Terminal. I tried to say that the obvious way to comply with air passengers’ rights rules was to book me on a flight from Heathrow on sister airline British Airways. But while this discussion was taking place, a spare seat popped up on a later Vueling flight from Gatwick.

Best budget airline flight? I have enjoyed excellent experiences throughout the year on easyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair. But the trip that stands out is on Wizz Air, and also happens to be the longest from the UK. In November I wanted to find a new and different route to Delhi in India, and settled on Wizz Air to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The plane was packed, almost entirely with Muslims on their way to the holy city of Mecca for the Umrah pilgrimage. The six-hour trip was serene and comfortable. I enjoyed chatting with fellow travellers. But what impressed me most was the extraordinary grace and respect shown by the cabin crew towards the passengers.

I continued from Jeddah on an Air India overnight flight to Delhi. The economy fare was £150, and the carrier offered a business-class upgrade for about the same – so I took it. By now I was in the mood for a beer once clear of Saudi airspace, but the Jeddah route is “dry” throughout.

My best flight of the year overall was, as it happens, also on Air India: AI169 from Amritsar to London Gatwick on 5 December. Almost everything about it was agreeable, starting with the fare: £224 for an 11-hour flight.

Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple, is an ideal place to begin a journey – the auto-rickshaw ride to the airport cost about one-fifth of the drop-off charge at Gatwick, and offered a final slice of Indian life. Amritsar airport is big and modern, but also friendly and calm.

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Once airborne, the cabin crew were lovely and the food delicious (as it was a daytime flight, I avoided the booze). And at the back of the Boeing 787, I had three seats together, the dream of any economy passenger.

Downsides? Well, because of the toxic relationship between India and Pakistan, the first hour was spent getting no closer to Gatwick – flying south to avoid Pakistani airspace. And the in-flight entertainment system did not work for lots of seats, including mine.

An Air India spokesperson told me: “These legacy aircraft came to Air India when it was privatised in 2022, and we are aware that there are some issues. As part of the airline’s transformation programme, all 26 of the legacy B787-8 aircraft are undergoing a retrofit programme, which will be completed by mid-2027. Progress has already begun, with the first two retrofitted B787-8s returning to service in February 2026.”

Gatwick in the rain is slightly less appealing than Amritsar in the sunshine, but the super-speedy pilots guided us to the Sussex airport well ahead of schedule. It was one of those rare flights on which I was sitting on a train leaving the arrival airport before the plane was even due to touch down.

Wherever you fly in 2026, I wish you happy landings.

Read more: Your miracles of travel in 2025