Having just finished our New Year festivities here at OAG HQ, we’re in the mood for celebrations and so we’re delighted to see some new names rise to the top of our annual Punctuality League. We hope to be celebrating with them in the coming weeks. 

It’s always a rush to process year-end data so we can announce the latest winners as soon as possible. We’ve been burning the midnight oil on this one!

Taking the top spot among airlines this year is Hawaiian Airlines which achieved an average on-time performance through 2016 of 89.87%. This is an improvement on 2015 when the airline reached 9^th place.

Among airports, another new winner has emerged with Birmingham Airport in the UK, classified in the Punctuality League as a Medium-sized airport, coming in at first place. The airport achieved an impressive on-time performance of 91.28% through 2016.

Not far behind, another UK airport emerged, Newcastle Airport, with the second best on-time performance of any airport worldwide, 90.94%. Newcastle Airport is in the Small Airport Category.

Ranked third among airports, OAG is pleased to welcome yet another new entrant, Surabaya in Indonesia. Surabaya has been classified as a Large Airport and, in addition to achieving the third best on-time performance globally, the airport has the best on-time performance of any large airport with 90.30% of flights on time.

For the third year in a row, Tokyo Haneda holds on to top place in our Major Airports category, with 87.49% of flights on time.

Some other key findings:

As we’ve shown before, neither size nor geography is necessarily a barrier to great on-time performance. Winners and runners-up in 2016 include both large and small airports and airlines, those which handle snow and those blessed with sun. Furthermore, the improvements in ranking shown by some of our winners demonstrate that on-time performance is one aspect of customer service which airlines and airports can change.

A particular mention should go to Delta Air Lines and its hub airports. As one of the very largest airlines in the world, its ranking in 15^th place overall among all airlines, is commendable and the fact that four of its hub airports - Detroit, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Seattle - all feature among the Top 10 Major Airports worldwide says something for its operations.

See the full results of the Punctuality League 2016 by clicking the button below.