The world’s most punctual airlines and airports have been revealed in a respected report – and it will surprise few people that the most efficient carriers and hubs are in Japan, a country renowned for its efficiency.
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have been ranked the most on-time of all the ‘mega’ worldwide carriers, beating Delta Air Lines into third place in the OAG Punctuality League. British Airways came 10th.
In the ‘mega airports’ ranking Tokyo Haneda came out top, with an on-time performance of 86.75 per cent, beating Madrid and Atlanta into second and third place.
Japan Airlines, pictured, has been named the most punctual mega airline with an on time performance score of 85.27%
The comprehensive report, by OAG, is released annually and this year’s study looked at flight arrivals in 2017.
The rest of the mega airlines ranking is made up of IndiGo, which came fourth, Alaska Airlines, SAS, United Airlines, LATAM Airlines Group, American Airlines and Southwest, which tied with BA in 10th.
In the mega airports category – for hubs that handle more than 30 million passengers a year – US airports Denver, Dallas Forth Worth and Chicago O’Hare made the top 10 alongside Singapore, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London Heathrow.
However, the OAG report goes even further and breaks down airlines and airports into smaller sub-categories including mainline airlines and low-cost carriers.
A table showing the top 20 most punctual mega airlines. Making the top ten include Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and British Airways
The world’s most efficient mega airport was found to be Tokyo Haneda. Also making the top 10 were Atlanta, Denver, Dallas Fort Worth, Chicago O’Hare and London Heathrow
The most punctual mainline airline is Lativian-based airBaltic, with Hawaiian Airlines and Qantas also making it in the top five.
In terms of low-cost carriers, the most efficient is Spanish-based Vuelling Airlines, which beat Jetstar Asia into second place.
And when it comes to airports, the study also narrowed the data down into categories for small, medium, large and major hubs.
The airport in Tenerife was found to be the most punctual small airport. Liverpool airport cme in seventh place
For medium airports, with less than 10 million passengers a year, Birmingham in the UK was most punctual
For the smallest hubs, with less than five million passengers a year, the most punctual is Tenerife North, beating Hannover and Stavanger, with Liverpool making into seventh place.
Birmingham is named the most efficient medium airport (one that handles less than 10 million passengers a year) pipping Panama City, Cologne Bonn, Belo Horizonte and Stuttgart to the post.
Unsurprisingly, the Japanese airport of Osaka was found to the most punctual large airport, ahead of Salt Lake City and Rio de Janeiro and Brisbane.
It is no surprise that Osaka airport in Japan was the most efficient performing large airport
In terms of major airports, who handle less than 30million passengers a year, the most punctual was Minneapolis St Paul
Meanwhile in the major airport category – airports that serve less than 30 million passengers – Minneapolis St Paul was most efficient followed by Doha, Moscow Sheremetyevo, Detroit, Phoenix and Houston.
The report comes just weeks after consumer group Which? released its annual survey looking at passenger satisfaction among passengers flying on airlines that operate out of the UK.
And it revealed that Ryanair and Vuelling Airlines had the least satisfied passengers with BA not fairing much better.