The near-static average payment score suggests that, despite increased scrutiny and focus on financial health following the pandemic-driven disruption, air travel companies demonstrated only a marginal improvement in their payment behaviour between 2020 and 2021. The negligible 0.4-point increase suggests systemic challenges persist in timely payments within the industry, possibly influenced by complex supply chains and ongoing operational pressures. While there has been slight progress made overall, a score of 61.5 out of 100 continues to indicate significant room for improvement.
One-line summary: Analysis of 58 companies in 2020 scored payment practices at 61.1/100, whilst in 2021, 63 companies showed a minor increase to 61.5/100.

We analysed over 100,000 published UK payment-practice reports. Late payment is falling — from 20% of invoices paid outs
How UK companies' payment practices changed in 2025 — the biggest improvers, the firms slipping, and the strongest new e
The UK agriculture sector is significantly outperforming the UK average for payment practices, suggesting a degree of fi
The year-on-year decline of 0.1 points, while statistically insignificant, suggests a stagnation in payment performance