OAG Punctuality: Garuda Indonesia ranks first among top 20 global airlines

Once again, the OAG Punctuality League demonstrates that airlines and airports of all sizes and in all parts of the world – even those where the skies are especially busy – can achieve excellent on-time performance. Every airline and airport needs to be looking to the best-in-class performers to learn what they can about flight punctuality, and, of course, punctuality can increasingly be seen as an indication of operational efficiency which translates to satisfied passengers and satisfied shareholders.

So, who are these best-in-class performers?

The best airline in the world is Garuda Indonesia which managed to operate 19 of every 20 flights on-time across the whole of 2019. That is 95% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. For an airline which operates 35% of flights out of the congested Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at Jakarta, this is some achievement. With a third runway at the airport that has entered commercial service part way through 2019, it will be interesting to see if the airline can improve punctuality even further in 2020.

On the other side of the world, Copa Airlines also notched up an impressive performance. A regular in the upper rankings of the Punctuality League, Copa Airlines was ranked second in the world in 2019, having raised its on-time performance to 92% across the year. Punctuality has been a key feature of the Copa Airlines operation for a number of years, contributing to the slick operation of the Panama Airport hub.

Ranked second among the largest “Mega” airlines in the world, Aeroflot is showing the largest European airlines how to leads the way for punctuality. The combination of intense analysis of operations and a young and presumably more reliable fleet appears to be a winning combination.

In North America, Delta Air Lines made it into the Top 20 Airlines proving once again that sheer size should be no obstacle to punctuality.

As always, the Japanese make a stellar appearance in the OAG Punctuality League. Both the largest carriers, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, make it into the Top 20 airlines worldwide, ranked 7th and 15th respectively, but the airports do very well too. Tokyo Haneda is ranked second among the “Mega” airports globally, Tokyo Narita is just outside the Top 10 “Major” airports, and Osaka Itami tops the list of “Large” airports worldwide.

Two other countries merit attention for the fact that multiple airports make it into the 2020 Punctuality League showing a degree of consistency among airport authorities when it comes to prioritizing operation efficiency. First is the US which deserves recognition because 8 of the Top 20 “Mega” airports are in the US, 10 of the Top 20 “Major” airports as well as 8 of the Top 20 “Large” airports. Among this list of airports are almost all airports familiar to anyone connecting in the US, demonstrating again that hub operations provide a very real incentive to on-time performance.

The other country worth a mention is Brazil. Nine Brazilian airports make it into one or other of the lists by size. Fortaleza is ranked 11th and Curitiba is ranked 18th among the “Small” airports, while Sao Paulo Guarulhos is ranked 4th among the “Major” airports. The other six airports have rankings among the “Large” and “Medium” sized airports.

For airlines and airports alike, key to improving punctuality is having a clear grasp of performance, and that means timely and accurate data. Many of the airlines and airports mentioned here are sophisticated users of data, capturing insights from every part of their operations. As a provider of flight status data, OAG is a significant partner in the journey towards improved punctuality and the publication of benchmarking data, such as the OAG Punctuality League, is our contribution to the industry pursuit of improved performance.