Flight with a stopover? Here are the top hubs in Europe and around the world (and average delays). Fiumicino at the top

For most Italian travelers, taking an intercontinental flight involves making a stopover. The only Italian airports that have a good portfolio of long-haul destinations served non-stop are Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa. And only the former allows the use of Italy's largest airline, ITA Airways, which has instead zeroed out its operations at Malpensa..

Moreover, even the two largest airports offer connectivity, globally, that is very limited when compared to that of major European and global airports. Hence, the question one almost always asks before leaving for a distant destination is: where do I stop over? Of course, the overriding consideration is that the airport chosen as a stopover is itself connected non-stop to our final destination. And another may be related to the airline we will be flying with and/or the frequent flyer program/programs we are members of.

But a not insignificant factor are. minimum connecting times, the efficiency of the airport, meaning the ease of 'navigation' within it between the two flights (London Heathrow and Paris Charles De Gaulle, in this respect, can be quite problematic) and The punctuality with which flights depart and arrive, which is critical to minimize the risk of missing a connection (Recalling that, according to international standards, a flight is on time if it departs/arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled time).

Cirium, the aviation industry's leading agency for traffic data analysis, released at the beginning of the year the Ranking of the world's most punctual airports in 2023. E, scrolling through the top 20 'global' airports. (those with more than 25 million passengers and that are connected to at least three continents), there is little to be cheerful about as European travelers, since the only mainland hub in the ranking is Oslo Gardermoen.

The Norwegian airport is in 14th place, with 80.08% of its flights taking off and landing on time during 2023. Although it is the main hub of the low-cost airline specializing in long-haul Norse Atlantic, Italian passengers have little or no use for it as a transit airport, since it is poorly and poorly connected to our country.

Scrolling down the list of the 20 most punctual 'global' airports, Those within reach of Italian travelers are seven. From the most punctual downwards we find Detroit (83.09% of on-time flights), where you can stopover with Delta Airlines coming from Rome during the summer months; Philadelphia (82.75% of on-time flights), where you can always stopover from Rome with American Airlines; Doha (82.04%) where Qatar Airways transits from Rome, Milan and Venice; Charlotte (80.36%), where we transit with American Airlines from Rome only in the summer season; Washington (Dulles), where you can stopover with United Airlines from Rome; Chicago (O'Hare), which is always connected by United with Rome and Milan; Atlanta, where it transits with Delta Airlines from Rome and Milan.

If, instead of looking at the glass half full, one prefers to look at the glass half empty, and thus at the average accumulated delay at those same airports from flights that take off and land there not on time, Doha is the best, as the average delay is 41 minutes. They are followed by Atlanta (58 minutes), Detroit and Chicago (68 minutes), Charlotte (69 minutes), Washington (71 minutes) and Philadelphia (75 minutes).

The top 20 punctuality of airports defined by Cirium as 'large' (those with traffic between 25 and 40 million annual passengers) offers no further insights, as it is made up for 90% by airports already in the top 20 global, with the remaining ones not connected to Italy.

Instead, it offers insights the top 20 airports in the 'medium' category (i.e., according to Cirium, those With traffic between 15 and 25 million passengers annually): among them, in 16th place with 81.03% of flights that took off and landed on time during the past year is Abu Dhabi where they fly from Rome and Milan with Etihad; in 17th place is Addis Ababa (80.67%) where you can transit with Ethiopian Airlines, which serves Rome and Milan in Italy; in 19th place is Helsinki (80.29%), where one arrives with Finnair from Rome and Milan to continue (generally) to the Far East. In these three hubs, the average delay of off-time flights is 46, 37, and 36 minutes, respectively.

In the top 20 'small' airports (with less than 15 million passengers a year) more timely, the only one of interest to Italian travelers is Beirut, where in 2023 84.14% of flights landed and took off on time and are reached from Rome and Milan, generally bound for the Middle East. Here the average delay of that remaining 16% or so of flights is 42 minutes.

What about the big European hubs? To verify this requires 'moving' to another online data analysis platform: that of OAG (oag.com). Where the OTP (On Time Performance) figures for the four continental 'biggies' (London Heathrow, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Frankfurt and Amsterdam) are rather discouraging.

The one by far worse off is Lufthansa's main hub, which between January and November 2023 (OAG data are up to the penultimate month of last year) saw on-time departures and landings of only the 42.6% of flights. Better went in thehub of Air France, where on-time flights were 54.5% of the total. One step higher we find British Airways' hub (60.5%) and KLM's hub (61.0%).

Speaking of major European hubs, one cannot, for some years now, not consider Istanbul. Well Turkish Airlines' hub has given beer to its four European competitors, closing the January-November 2023 period with 66.1% of flights that took off and landed on time.

Looking at home at the only existing hub in Italy, we must proudly say. Rome Fiumicino put in a mouth-watering 2023. In the eleven months recorded by OAG, ITA Airways' hub recorded an OTP Equal to 70.5%, with a punctuality index of 75% or higher in five of those eleven months and never falling below 53%. Better give it some thought, in view of the upcoming Easter and summer vacations....

• cirium
• oag
• on time