As frequent flyers know too well, very few flights ever leave on time. There’s always a reason (or at least, an excuse) of course. And a late departure doesn’t necessarily mean a late arrival — although it often does.
But for everyone except the most casual travellers, there are appointments and connections that have to be met, so on-time performance is important.
The FlightStats Ontime Service Performance Awards have been running for eight years, and you can read their categories, criteria and other details here.
The winners for 2016 were Iberia, who were on-time 87.79 per cent of the time. Also on the list were Qatar (86.34pc); KLM (85.53pc); and, for alliances, the One World group (81.19pc).
In America, the winner was Alaska (87pc); in Asia, JAL (87.8pc); in Latin America, Copa Airlines (89.01pc); and among low-cost airlines, Iberia Express (89.64pc).
Update: I’ve been asked to include Australian domestic airlines. Here’s on-time arrival stats from November 2016: Virgin Australia 83.4pc, Qantas 80.9pc, Jetstar 71.7 pc, Tigerair Aust 71.4pc. (Source here.)
