Getting to a destination on time is an important factor for many travellers and nobody among the world’s top 200 mainline carriers did it better than Hawaiian Airlines in 2016.
The Hawaiian carrier significantly improved its position to move up from ninth to first place in the OAG Punctuality League listing the globe’s 20 most punctual airlines. It did so by operating 89.87 per cent of its flights on time.
Following Hawaiian’s lead were Latin America’s Copa Airlines (88.75 per cent), Dutch-based carrier KLM (87.89 per cent), Australia’s Qantas (87.56 per cent) and Japan Airlines (86.74 per cent).
The biggest carrier among the top 20 most punctual airlines was US-based Delta Air Lines, which came 13th with 84.29 per cent of its flights on time.
“For an airline of this size, the fact that over 84 per cent of all flights arrived on time over a year is a remarkable achievement,’’ the report said.
Alaska Airlines, in seventh position with an on-time performance of 86.05 per cent, was the other US carrier to make the top 20.
The top five low-cost airlines were UK-based Monarch Airlines (85.67 per cent) GOL (84.63 per cent), Transvia (83.98 per cent), Jet2.com (82.64 per cent) and germanwings (82.48 per cent). Three airlines new to the LCC top 20 were Spring Airlines, Eurowings and Spirit Airlines.
The world’s biggest LCC, Southwest, was ranked seventh with an on-time performance of 81.04 per cent.
Regional winners were Qantas (Asia-Pacific), KLM (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Hawaiian (North America) and Sky Airline (Latin America).
Winning airports were Newcastle in the UK (small airports), Birmingham (medium), Surabaya (large) and Tokyo Haneda (major).
OAG looks at the top 200 airlines globally and airports that handle 2.5 one-way million seats annually. It defines on-time performance as being within 14 minutes and 59 seconds of scheduled departure or arrival.
OAG executive vice president John Grant said the survey this year drew upon the biggest number of flights tracked in a single year.
“One of the few constants in our dynamic industry is the need for travellers to arrive at their destination or connecting airport on time,’’ he said.
"The 2016 OAG Punctuality League highlights just how successful we are at delivering on this key performance indicator.
“Whether it is a 17-hour long-haul service or a one-hour connecting flight to a hub, the accuracy of both scheduling the service and delivering the stated on-time performance is incredible; especially when compared to so many other forms of transport.’’
