How to Outshine Your Peers - Punctuality League 2018

The moment when we transition from one year to another is always an opportunity to reflect on what has changed and what stays the same. The numbers may only change by a single digit – 2017 to 2018 – but the world is changing faster and the need for businesses to stay on top of business performance is stronger than ever.

With another year comes another look at the on-time performance of the world's airlines and airports in OAG's Punctuality League 2018.

With the New Year, OAG has pulled out all the stops in order to compile its annual review of airline and airport on-time performance (OTP). European carrier airBaltic makes a welcome return to the top of the league table as the only airline for which over 90% of flights arrive on time. Joining airBaltic in the top 3 spots are Asian carrier Hong Kong Airlines and American carrier, Hawaiian Airlines.

A welcome new angle on OTP data in the Punctuality League 2018 report is on-time performance for the largest global airlines and a chance to compare how the biggest and the best perform. Japanese punctuality maestros Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways come in first and second place, with OTP of 85.3% and 83.8%, respectively. Delta Air Lines, the second largest operator of scheduled airline flights worldwide, comes in third with a very respectable OTP of 82.8%, while India’s fast growing low-cost carrier IndiGo makes an impressive appearance in fourth place with OTP of 81.2%.

Also new for 2018 is OTP for the Top 20 biggest Domestic Routes and the Top 20 Biggest International Routes worldwide and by airline. Hong Kong-Taipei had the highest number of international flights operating back and forth in 2017 of which 70.9% were on-time but OTP varied between airlines with the best managing to get almost 9 in 10 flights to arrive on-time, and the worst barely able to get half of operations to their destinations on-time. The highest density domestic route was Jeju-Seoul and 74.1% of flights arrived on-time.

Airports have been split into five categories this year in the latest Punctuality League in order to give the largest more of a chance to shine. Tenerife North tops the league table for Small Airports which handle between 2.5 million and 5 million departing seats each year, and is the only airport to achieve OTP better than 90%. Birmingham Airport comes top of the Medium Airport category (airports handling between 5 and 10 million departing seats) for the second year in a row, while Osaka performs best among Large Airports (10-20 million departing seats). Ranked in first place among Large Airports, those with 20-30 million departing seats in 2017 is Minneapolis St Paul with OTP of 86.6%. Giving a spotlight to the truly big airports, the Mega Airport category, for airports which handle over 30 million departing seats, is headed by Tokyo Haneda with OTP of 86.8%, followed by Madrid and Atlanta.

As the Punctuality League continues to show, on-time performance is a key performance indicator which airlines and airports can and should manage. While a number of factors can have an adverse effect on-time performance, truly great on-time performance doesn’t happen by accident. As this year’s data league table shows, airlines operating the same route can perform very differently; even the largest airlines with the most complex schedules can deliver great on-time performance and one airport with a similar profile to another can outshine its peers.

See the full results of the Punctuality League 2018 by clicking the button below.

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