The year has just ended and it's already time for rankings: the most punctual companies in 2025 and how Italian companies fared

The end of one year and the beginning of the next are usually times for taking stock. And, in the case of air transport, rankings: which airlines carried the most passengers and which airports saw the most passengers pass through? And, again, which airline or airport offered its customers the best performance in terms of flight punctuality (what is called OTP, On Time Performance)? As for traffic figures, it will take a few days for them to be made official by companies and airports. And we at The Flight Club will be on the lookout to provide them to you as soon as we can.

As for, however, the punctuality of flights operated by airlines and operations conducted by airports, the agency specializing in aviation statistics and data. Cirium was able to make available data updated to December 30, 2025, and therefore to be considered final for the past year.

Speaking of carriers, Cirium traditionally divides them by geographical areas, with one ranking devoted to European, one to North American, one to Latin American, one to Asia-Pacific, and one to Middle East-Africa. But it also provides a separate ranking that includes companies defined as 'Global,' meaning they operate on at least three continents, because it is clear that the greater the complexity of the network, the more variables may affect the OTP. In addition, as of this year, the agency has also provided a top 10 'Most improved airlines' i.e., of the companies that improved the most in 2025 compared to 2024 among those with an OTP higher than 70%.

As for the criterion used by Cirium , this is the universally recognized criterion for telling whether or not a flight is on time: that is, the arrival of the plane at the terminal (not its landing on the runway) within fifteen minutes after the scheduled arrival time. A company's OTP will thus also be linked to the efficiency of airport operations, to the point that, as Cirium's top management points out, "a punctual company usually operates or has its hubs at efficient airports, and efficient airports often coincide with 'home' carriers that are themselves efficient and punctual."

It should, therefore, come as no surprise that many of the carriers finished in Cirium's top 10 are 'usuals,' meaning that they reconfirm themselves in the top positions of the rankings regularly year after year. Such is the case with Aeromexico, which in 2025 established itself as the world's most punctual 'Global' airline, with 90.02% of its flights arriving on-time. The Mexican carrier is followed on the podium by Saudia with 86.53% of flights arriving on time and SAS Scandinavian Airlines with 86.09%, in a top 10 that also includes Brazil's Azul, Qatar Airways, Iberia, Chilean-Brazilian LATAM, Colombian Avianca, Turkish Airlines, and Delta Airlines.

Looking at the European picture, ahead of them all is Iberia Express, the regional subsidiary of Iberia, with 88.94% of OTP, followed by Scandinavian Airlines and Austrian Airlines (83.74%). In fourth place is Iberia, followed by Virgin Atlantic, Icelandair, Vueling, Turkish Airlines, Norwegian, and Finnair, which rounds out the European top 10 with 79.67% on-time flights.

No Italians made the top ten, with ITA Airways posting a 76.71% and Air Dolomiti a 74.35% while, regarding Neos and Aeroitalia, Cirium had access to too small a sample of flights (the 52% and 49%, respectively) to provide a reliable figure.

In North America Delta Airlines has been the most punctual airline for years now (actually Hawaiian would be, but it is not based on the mainland and therefore is not included by Cirium among the proper North American carriers). The Atlanta-based company ended 2025 with 80.90% of flights arriving on time, followed by Alaska Airlines (79.20%) and Spirit Airlines (78.83%). The top 10 is completed by United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, WestJet, Air Canada, and Frontier Airlines.

Going down in Latin America, the best was Panamanian Copa Airlines with 90.75% of on-time flights ahead of Aeromexico and Brazil's Gol (87.75%). Below the podium is Azul ahead of Latam, Chilean low-cost Sky Airlines, Avianca, the other Chilean low-cost JetSmart, and Aerolineas Argentinas.

Crossing the Pacific and arriving In Asia-Pacific, the queen was Philippine Airlines, which closed with an OTP of 83.12% ahead of Air New Zealand (79.29%) and All Nippon Airways (78.88%), which is narrowly ahead of Singapore Airlines in turn followed by Japan Airlines, IndiGO, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Australia, Qantas and Korean Air.

The world's 2025 most punctual airline (counting non-'Global' airlines) is based in the Middle East-Africa region, but it is not one of the known 'big' ones. Instead, it is Royal Jordanian, which put in an outstanding 91.06%, followed by South African low-cost Safair with 90.73% and Saudi low-cost Flyadeal with 86.54%.

To find one of the 'bigs' you have to reach Saudia, fourth ahead of South African regional Airlink, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, South African Airways, Etihad Airways, and Kuwait Airways. Outside the top 10 is Emirates.

The ranking of 'Most improved airlines', that is, of the most improved companies considering the OTP of 2025 compared with that of 2024, has a special feature, that è that of being was put together by Cirium not on the basis of the absolute OTP value, but on how much that OTP improved percentage-wise from one year to the next. Virgin Atlantic did best of all, improving its punctuality index by 9.9 percentage points and placing ahead of Philippine Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air, Scandinavian Airlines, Flydubai, Finnair, Etihad and Gol.

• cirium
• ranking
• on time performance
• otp
• punctuality