Flamingo holds up EasyJet service at Mallorca airport

Punctuality is a virtue that EasyJet is known to struggle with.

The budget airline's Punctuality Report showed last year over a quarter (25.18 per cent) of flights arrived late.

So this EasyJet pilot arriving on the Spanish island of Mallorca must have turned pink with embarrassment to have an otherwise punctual flight held up on the runway.

His passengers may have had diffuculty believing the reason for this hold-up if they couldn't see it themselves: a big pink flamingo.

The flustered EasyJet crew began sounding their horn to get the bird to move, but it elegantly continued to stroll in front of the passenger plane, undisturbed.

Un flamenco recibía esta mañana a los pasajeros que llegaban al aeropuerto de Palma. Muy elegante, paseando por la plataforma.... pic.twitter.com/xmNBui2WtI

— 😷Controladores Aéreos 🇪🇸 (@controladores) April 7, 2019

Aircraft enthusiast and Twitter user Controladores Aereos caught the humorous encounter on video.

Posting it online, Aereos commented on the "elegance" of the 4kg bird which seemed unfussed about the 83,000 kg jet plane it was holding up.

Like many of the passengers waiting to disembark from the Easyjet A320, the Greater Flamingo comes to Mallorca for the winter months.

According to Mallorca Bird Watching, the island's flamingo flocks can number over 300.

It was unusual, then, to find the solo flamingo standing in the runway at Palma de Mallorca Airport like a discarded lawn ornament.

"At no point was any flight delayed or safety compromised in any way," read a statement issued by EasyJet.

A flamingo is hardly the most unusual animal to hold-up an aircraft.

Last year an alligator was snapped lazing in front of planes trying to arrive at Orlando International Airport, in Florida.

In 2017, a swarm of bees inexplicably attacked the wing of Flight QG 885 upon landing in Medan's Kualanmu airport, trapping passengers inside for 90 minutes.