When you jump on a flight from here to there, one of the key determinates is when does it arrive? Airline flight arrival time has a lot of variables involved, like weather, equipment issues and the airport that it is departing from on the journey. Some airports are not good for on time departures, in fact there are some bad airports for on time departures. So all things being equal, all airline passengers have the travel experience of a delayed flight at some point. That does not help when you have a critical flight plan to get you to your destination on time. So how can you fly faster?
A lot of airline on time arrival status has to do with the airline you choose and their ability to make up time in route. The simple look at the on time or delayed departure statistics for an airline does not always convert to the on time arrival/delays matching. FlightStats has captured and collected information on more than 2 billion flights in 2015. The resulting report provided some interesting results for those in loyality programmes under the airline alliances - One World, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam. More on that later.
So the plan is to get on airlines that have the best on time arrival stats and avoid the airlines with the worst arrival time history. With the history of airlines flight arrival times versus the scheduled arrival time, it is pretty easy to see who is arriving on time and who isn’t. This short blog will just touch on the top 10 best airline arrival statistics, and the worst 10 airlines for on time arrivals.
The top 10 Best Airlines for on time arrivals.
Airline |
Monitored Flights |
On-time
|
On-time
|
Avg. Dep
|
Avg. Arrival
|
|
(AY) Finnair |
107,499 |
91.05% |
93.13% |
33.6 |
30.6 |
|
(S7) S7 Airlines |
90,593 |
74.00% |
91.07% |
41.5 |
59.8 |
|
(CM) Copa Airlines |
122,837 |
94.88% |
91.02% |
56 |
43.5 |
|
(JP) Adria Airways |
19,058 |
78.92% |
89.81% |
33 |
36.4 |
|
(JL) JAL |
270,685 |
92.86% |
89.44% |
37 |
34.3 |
|
(IB) Iberia |
187,538 |
86.74% |
88.97% |
36.6 |
41.3 |
|
(NH) ANA |
374,606 |
90.40% |
88.88% |
44.3 |
33.8 |
|
(SU) Aeroflot |
284,245 |
73.76% |
88.27% |
39.2 |
53 |
|
(LO) LOT - Polish Airlines |
66,912 |
87.79% |
87.92% |
37.6 |
37.2 |
|
(KL) KLM |
227,736 |
83.00% |
87.88% |
45.3 |
51.1 |
You may not be too surprised, you do not see any North American or Middle East airlines on the best performing airlines for the on-time arrival shortlist of airlines for this designation. Instead the best performing carriers are mostly European and Japan based airlines. Even though they all had varying on-time departure delays, five airlines on the list managed to ‘fly faster’ to improve and decrease the average arrival delay. If you are doing long haul flights and see Finnair as an option for your route then it would be a good choice for arriving on-time. This has a lot to do with the fact that the Helsinki Airport is the best performing airport in Europe for on time departures, combined with Finnair’s ability to ‘make up time’ on some routes.
The 10 Worst Airlines for on time arrivals.
Airline |
Flights Monitored |
On-time Departure |
On-time Arrival |
Avg. Dep Delay |
Avg. Arrival Delay |
|
(OZ) Asiana Airlines |
105,823 |
73.79% |
71.87% |
37.5 |
37.2 |
|
(MS) EgyptAir |
86,179 |
72.80% |
71.43% |
44.4 |
43.8 |
|
(VN) Vietnam Airlines |
129,465 |
73.84% |
71.13% |
51.6 |
50.1 |
|
(ET) Ethiopian Airlines |
80,192 |
76.47% |
70.55% |
48.9 |
52.3 |
|
(CX) Cathay Pacific |
96,711 |
68.46% |
69.03% |
50.2 |
51.1 |
|
(BR) EVA Air |
49,504 |
77.15% |
65.15% |
46.1 |
45.3 |
|
(CI) China Airlines |
62,668 |
30.23% |
62.45% |
42.8 |
46.1 |
|
(CZ) China Southern Airlines |
696,698 |
61.46% |
62.35% |
69.1 |
71.9 |
|
(MU) China Eastern Airlines |
647,097 |
60.22% |
55.60% |
65.5 |
64.1 |
|
(MF) Xiamen Airlines |
207,073 |
57.37% |
46.43% |
66 |
68.8 |
The common denominator for the airlines with the worst record for on-time arrivals is that most are Asian based carriers. The high volume of traffic combined with airport delays has meant that the ‘low cost Asian competitor’ for long haul flights has a cost for the consumer… flight delays. For many of the carriers late departures grew and were not able to be ‘repaired’ inflight, resulting in worse and declining on-time arrivals as compared to the percentage of flights that were delayed on departure. What to do? Allow an extra hour of connection time when dealing with the worst airlines in order to compensate for the unfolding disaster to your holiday/ business trip.
The Airlines Alliances on time arrival stats.
Not all airlines are created the same and they definitely do offer the same levels of service. From that concept was born the airline alliance system where ‘birds of a feather, flock together’, where airlines share common beliefs and coordinate with each other to facilitate greater revenues for the ‘team’. In a perfect world the customer benefits. When it comes to flight delays… the airline flocks are slow moving ducks easy to spot as problematic. Your interpretation of the following table may help you understand who is worth following with your loyalty or at least your wallet.
Airline Alliance |
Flights Tracked |
On-time Departure |
On-time Arrival |
Avg. Dep Delay |
Avg. Arrival Delay |
|
4,813,826 |
81.76% |
80.97% |
N/Available |
52.2 |
|
|
5,850,819 |
80.51% |
78.57% |
N/Available |
52.6 |
|
|
5,758,574 |
74.28% |
75.08% |
N/Available |
57.4 |
For many being an hour or two late on arrival to start a holiday is not a problem. For others the missed connection can means thousands of dollars in losses due to a missed opportunity. Some good forward planning on the airline you choose for flights to and from an airport, is just as important as the total cost of the trip. Saving a few dollars can convert into hours of delay, missed connections, and in extreme cases… unhappy relatives, partners, and customers.
Is your favourite airline…or least favourite airline missing from this consolidated list of airlines? No problem checkout the full list of global airline rating in the annual on-time report at FlightStats.
What’s next? Visa Free Travel.
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