The company OAGwhich analyses all global air transport data, presented its annual rankings of airlines and airports in terms of punctuality a few weeks ago. The comparison is based on some 54 million flights over the whole of 2016. For airports, OAG has selected as criteria those hubs where 80% of the flights operated are regularly scheduled.
OAG's definition of on-time performance (OTP) is based on any flight arriving or departing within 15 minutes of its scheduled departure and arrival times. Cancellations are also taken into account.
The results are surprising. Globally, the five most punctual airlines include "secondary" airlines with no global coverage, such as the champion Hawaiian Airlines or Panama's national airline, Copa Airlines. In Europe, KLM is the most punctual airline with almost 88% flights considered as one-offs according to the definition of IATA. Also in Europe, the giant Iberia is also well rated, with an average punctuality close to 86%. In Asia, it is not surprising to find the two Japanese airlines in the leading pack Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways as well as Singapore Airlines.
In terms of the world's airports, OAG distinguishes between mega-airports with operations exceeding 20 million seats/year, large airports (10 to 20 million), medium-sized airports (5 to 10 million) and small airports (2.5 to 5 million). Tokyo Haneda, Sao Paulo Guarulhos and Detroit lead the mega-airports with punctuality rates of over 84.5%, while the airports with the best air punctuality rates in all categories combined are, in order : Birmingham International (91.28%), Surabaya (90,30%), Osaka Itami (89.68%), Panama (89.56%) and Belo Horizonte (88,49%).
In Europe, the most punctual airports are those in the South - Milan Linate and Athens - and Moscow Sheremetyevo. Less surprisingly, many of the top 10 are Northern European hubs, particularly in Scandinavia and Germany. The punctuality performance of French airports is rather mediocre: according to OAG, Toulouse comes out on top, with punctuality flirting with 77%, while Lyon, Marseille and Roissy CDG are struggling to keep their punctuality rates above 70%. Orly airport even recorded one of the worst performances in Europe, with almost 63%. However, congestion at the airport is notorious...
On the other hand, there are no surprises when it comes to airlines. The most punctual are generally those from Northern Europe, with Air France doing rather well with a punctuality rate flirting with 77%.
