The most punctual companies? Badly the European 'biggies' (except one). How are the Italians doing
It was Colombia's Avianca, among the so-called 'global' carriers, the world's most punctual airline in 2023. The [...]
Saudia
Qatar Airways
Norwegian Air Shuttle
Lufthansa
LOT Polish Airlines
KLM
Japan Airlines
ITA Airways
Iberia
Finnair
Delta
British Airways
Austrian Airlines
American Airlines
All Nippon Airways (ANA)
Air France
Air Dolomiti
Star Alliance
SkyTeam
Oneworld
AMS
It was the Colombian Avianca, among the so-called 'global' carriers, The world's most punctual airline in 2023. Says the Cirium report, a leading agency in performance analysis in commercial air transportation.
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Considering 'on time' (as is international practice to do) a flight that lands within 15 minutes after the scheduled time, during the past year 85.7% of flights operated by Avianca landed on-time. On the podium of the top 10 most punctual companies are finished Brazil's Azul (85.5%) and Qatar Airways (85.1%). Among the remaining seven, there are two Americans (Delta and American Airlines), two Asian (All Nippon Airlines and Japan Airlines), another South American (Latam), one Middle Eastern (Saudia) and one European (Iberia).
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The Spanish carrier placed himself in fifth place with 84.3% of its flights arrived at their destinations on time. This result is even more remarkable considering that, among European airlines, its sister company Iberia Express did even better with 84.5% of on-time flights.
Considering only the old continent, behind the two Iberian ranked Austrian Airlines (82.9%) followed by. Lot Polish Airlines (82,8%), Norwegian Air shuttle (82,7%), Vueling (80,8%), Finnair (80,4%), Norwegian Air Sweden (76,6%), Icelandair (76.5%) with the top 10 closed by KLM (76,3%).
The result of the latter is excellent, when considering the number of flights operated in the year (240,533 versus Iberia's 170,750) and the complexity, in terms of infrastructure and traffic, of the hub (Amsterdam Schipol) from which it operates.
To give you an idea of how respectable the Dutch carrier's 10th place is, just compare its performance with that of the other Three European 'biggies': Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways.
According to data collected by another rating agency, OAG, between January and November 2023, the German Lufthansa put in its best performance in terms of punctuality in the very month of November (which is the 'flattest' month of the year in terms of traffic), bringing 76.5% of its flights to their destinations on-time, but In six of the eleven months analyzed, it ended up under the 70% (July was the worst month, with just 59.3% of 'LH-branded' flights landing on time).
Air France hit the peak of punctuality in February (77.9%), but went Under the 70% in five months of 2023 Touching the 'bottom' in June 858.6%. Even worse did British Airways: in November alone, more than 70% (72.7%) of its flights operated on time, while in all other ten months has remained below 70%, with the lowest point reached in March at 51.9%.
And how did the Italian companies fare in terms of punctuality in 2023?
According to data provided by OAG, ITA Airways had a great start to the year, with the on-time index well above 80% in the first three months of 2023: 85.9% in January, 88.6% in February, and 83.6% in March. Then, as the summer season approached, things got worse month by month: 75.7% in April, 70.9% in May, 57.0% in June, 47.3% in July. From there, the ascent began: 61.6% in August, 63.7% in September, 73.1% in October, 74.5% in November.
Air Dolomiti, the only other Italian 'counted' by OAG, it got worse, with the sole exception of January 2023, when 77.8% of its flights arrived on time. Over the next 10 months, the Verona-based company has always remained under 70%, and in the summer months from June to September even under 50%, before returning to acceptable levels in November (70.7%).