World’s most punctual airlines and airports in 2023

LONDON: Nothing about flying is as exasperating as getting your flight delayed, cancelled or disrupted.

Arriving at or departing from a destination on time is one of the most important considerations a traveler takes before deciding whether to book a subsequent flight from the same airline. Latest results from travel data analytics firm Cirium revealed that the most punctual airline last year in the global category was Colombia’s Avianca Airlines, which achieved an 85.73% on-time performance rate, followed by Brazil’s Azul Airlines (85.51%), which lost its top ranking. Qatar Airways came in third with an 85.11% OTP rate, foreign media reported.

A global airline is defined as one that serves in three regions daily, the company said. An airline’s on-time performance is calculated by whether the plane arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time and if it departs within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time.

In Asia-Pacific, Japanese carriers All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines claimed the top two spots with on-time performance rates of 82.75% and 82.58% respectively.

Thailand’s Thai AirAsia fell to fourth place last year from first in 2022. Indian low-cost carrier Indigo rose to fourth from fifth place last year on the back of the company’s rapid expansion. The airline, which has the largest fleet size and market share in India, became the first Indian carrier in 2023 to carry 100 million passengers in a calendar year.

It had an on-time performance score of 82.12%, the report showed. “IndiGo has really emerged as a powerful player in APAC. Their operations have been transformed since Covid,” said David White, vice-president of business development at Cirium.

“It’s giving both ANA [All Nippon Airways] and JAL [Japan Airlines] a run for their money in terms of their on-time performance,” White said at an online press conference ahead of the report’s release.

Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport was the world’s most punctual airport in 2023. This was followed by India’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. The Indian airport did not make the top 10 rankings in 2022, and the monumental jump to second is on the back of “pretty phenomenal” investments, said Mike Malik, Cirium’s chief marketing officer.