The nearest main airport to Brighton and Hove has the longest average delays in the country, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority.
The CAA said that Gatwick was 22nd out of 22 airports with at least 1,000 outbound flights last year while Heathrow was ranked 15th worst.
Gatwick said that it was working with partners to improve its performance while other airports said that many of the reasons for delays were outside their control.
Just over 126,000 flights took off from the airport, about 25 miles north of Brighton, last year and the average delay amounted to 26 minutes 51 seconds.
The national average was 20 minutes 43 seconds, down from 23 minutes 12 seconds in 2022, as airports struggled to cope with a boom after the coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions were lifted.
At Heathrow, more than 225,000 flights took off in 2023, with the average delay amounted to 19 minutes 59 seconds.
Gatwick was not only affected by air traffic control staff shortages across Europe last year but suffered the same problem in its own control tower.
Airport bosses even imposed a temporary cap on flights last September to try to reduce the number of last-minute cancellations and delays resulting from staff shortages among its own air traffic control staff.
Gatwick, Britain’s second busiest airport, said: “As the most efficient single runway airport in the world, we aim to deliver a seamless passenger experience.
“The majority of cancellations are caused by poor weather, airspace constraints across Europe and inefficient third-party ground operations. We are working closely with our airline partners to improve on-time performance.
“In addition, we have published a six-year capital investment programme setting out significant improvements to develop and enhance infrastructure and facilities to build the resilience of the airport.”
Gatwick cancelled 2,183 flights – or 2 per cent of departures – more than one in seven of the 14,900 cancellations at Britain’s 22 main airports. Heathrow also cancelled 2 per cent of its departures – or 4,645 flights in total.
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