For the 11th consecutive year, Cirium’s On-Time Performance Review 2019 provides the definitive ranking of the world’s most on-time airlines and airports by size and region.
Designed by the world’s leading authority onaviation on-time performance excellence, travel data and analytics expert Cirium, it raises the benchmark by encouraging airlines and airports to innovate and invest to ensure they provide customers with best-in-class travel experience, both in the air and on the ground. With over 600 data sources, Cirium tracks more than 100,000 flights per day. A flight is on-time if the aircraft arrives at the gate less than 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.
The world’s most punctual airline
The 2019 review revealed Aeroflot as the world’s – and Europe’s – most on-time global mainline airline with 86.68% of its flights arriving on-time. Japanese carrier All Nippon Airlines (ANA) came in second place with 86.26%. ANA and Japan Airlines (JAL) were both near the top despite suffering major disruptions from very damaging typhoons in September and October 2019. In fact, ANA’s performance increased from 84.20% in 2018 to 86.26% in 2019. Last year’s former winner, US-based Delta Air Lines took third place with 85.69%.
The most on-time global network airline was Latin American carrier LATAM Airlines with 86.67% of its flights arriving on-time. LATAM Airlines set the standard for most improved global networks in 2019. In 2018, LATAM Airlines ranked in tenth place in the Global Network category with an on-time performance of 79.99% and then climbed to the top of the list in 2019. LATAM Airlines’ performance is even more impressive considering that the airline is reducing its scheduled block times to get more operating cycles out of its fleet.
Copa Airlines has again taken the premier place for mainline and network operations in Latin America for the seventh year in a row with an on-time performance of 92.16% for its mainline operations, an increase from 89.68% in 2018, and 92.27% for its network. With an on-time performance of 82.45% for mainline and network operations, Qatar Airways has maintained its position at the top of the league for the Middle East & Africa for the fifth consecutive year.
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In North America, Delta Air Lines continued to demonstrate industry-leading on-time performance for the third year in a row. Delta Air Lines, the largest network carrier in the group by far, is earning business traveler loyalty with an excellent completed flight percentage of 99.36% across its network – a result of the success of its program to greatly reduce cancellations
All Nippon Airways (ANA) continued its streak of industry-leading operational performances by ranking first among Asia Pacific Mainline carriers in 2019. ANA had the highest on-time performance numbers across its Asia Pacific network in 2019 for the second year in a row with an on-time performance of 86.49%, increasing from 85.25% in 2018. Another win for the Asia Pacific region appeared in the Low Cost Carrier category. Japanese carrier Star Flyer topped the league of low-cost carriers with 91.37% of its flights recorded as being on-time.
The On-Time Performance Review 2019 named Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) the most on-time airport globally and among large sized airports with 95.01% on-time departures. As for medium sized airports, Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH) with an on-time departure performance of 93.32% Koh Samui Airport (USM) was the most on-time small airport with an on-time departure performance of 95.08%. The complete review can be found here.
