Most on-time airlines and airports of 2022 unveiled

Azul Airlines has been named as the global leader for airline on-time performance for 2022 by Cirium. The Cirium 2022 On-Time Performance Review is the global gold standard for airline and airport performance and it will be published later this week, containing results for all airline categories, more detail and analysis.

The past year saw a challenging operational environment across the world, particularly in Europe and North America, with many airlines and airports experiencing delays, disruptions and resource challenges. Others continue to emerge from Covid restrictions, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Despite this climate, many airlines and airports worldwide excelled.

For the second consecutive year Delta Air Lines was honored with the Cirium Platinum Award for global operational excellence. This award considers a number of factors including on-time performance, operational complexity and an airline’s ability to limit the impact of flight disruption to its passengers.

Alongside Delta’s Cirium Platinum Award, Azul was the global leader for on-time performance. The winners in the regions were Delta Air Lines in North America, Thai AirAsia for Asia Pacific, Oman Air for the Middle East and Africa, Azul in Latin America and Iberia in Europe. StarFlyer was the leading low-cost carrier and Haneda Airport was the top airport performer globally. More in-depth results are available below and will also appear at www.cirium.com, with the full report due to be published later this week.

An on-time flight is defined as a flight that arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled gate arrival. For an airport it is defined as departing within 15 minutes of its scheduled departure.

Jeremy Bowen, Cirium CEO said: “Congratulations to Delta Air Lines for its excellent performance in Cirium’s 2022 On-Time Performance Review, getting its passengers to their destinations on time as the sector revived during 2022. Ramping back up operations so quickly after an enforced slowdown is not easy to do and the top-ranked airlines and airports in Cirium’s 2022 On-Time Performance Review deserve their recognition for this well-orchestrated achievement.”

During 2022 airlines had difficulty anticipating the sudden recovery in demand. They had been disappointed on several previous occasions throughout the pandemic, when it looked like demand was picking up, only for it to reverse course in the face of new Covid variants. When the recovery finally came this past year, the industry—including airlines, airports, air navigation providers and other stakeholders—struggled with understaffing and insufficient capacity. Delays and cancellations became issues. In time, however, operations greatly improved as the industry added workers and adjusted capacity. 2023 appears to hold great promise for the aviation industry.

Cirium looks forward to continuing to lead the way worldwide in monitoring aviation on-time performance in the New Year, as the industry adjusts to post-pandemic norms as they develop. The company’s data is designed to provide industry stakeholders with a neutral, third-party perspective, based on the widest and deepest pool of data collected and curated from more than 600 sources of real-time flight information. These include the airlines themselves, airports, global distribution systems, positional data, civil aviation authorities, air navigation service providers, proprietary data partnerships and the internet. Cirium’s on-time performance data is backed further by a completely independent board of advisors, comprised of industry experts with an unbiased view of the aviation sector. The board’s oversight ensures accuracy and proper representation of all the information the company presents.

Global airline leaders were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(AD) Azul	1	88.93%	279,722
(NH) ANA	2	88.61%	162,370
(JL) JAL	3	88.00%	165,981
(LA) LATAM Airlines	4	86.31%	451,651
(DL) Delta Air Lines	5	83.63%	1,004,684
(AV) SA AVIANCA	6	83.48%	144,525
(EK) Emirates	7	81.30%	137,589
(UA) United Airlines	8	80.46%	789,200
(QR) Qatar Airways	9	78.32%	152,377
(AA) American Airlines	10	78.29%	1,076,100

The top performing global airports of 2022 were:

Airport	On time ranking	On time departure	Total flights
(HND) Haneda Airport	1	90.33%	373,264
(BLR) Kempegowda International Airport	2	84.08%	201,897
(SLC) Salt Lake City International Airport	3	83.87%	226,545
(DTW) Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport	4	82.62%	271,963
(PHL) Philadelphia International Airport	5	82.54%	233,777
(MSP) Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport	6	81.95%	276,346
(DEL) Indira Gandhi International Airport	7	81.84%	411,205
(SEA) Seattle-Tacoma International Airport	8	81.04%	383,250
(BOG) El Dorado International Airport	9	80.72%	273,721
(CLT) Charlotte Douglas International Airport	10	80.68%	457,871

In North America the top ten airlines were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(DL) Delta Air Lines	1	83.63%	1,004,684
(UA) United Airlines	2	80.46%	789,200
(AS) Alaska Airlines	3	80.36%	243,072
(AA) American Airlines	4	78.29%	1,076,100
(WN) Southwest Airlines	5	74.06%	1,336,888
(F9) Frontier Airlines	6	68.32%	170,047
(B6) JetBlue Airways	7	66.35%	343,673
(G4) Allegiant Air	8	65.93%	117,469
(WS) WestJet	9	59.10%	94,663
(AC) Air Canada	10	54.51%	150,602

In Europe the leading airlines were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(IB) Iberia	1	85.87%	91,154
(UX) Air Europa	2	84.10%	48,163
(I2) Iberia Express	3	83.80%	35,665
(VY) Vueling	4	82.04%	197,546
(OS) Austrian	5	82.00%	95,708
(DY) Norwegian Air Shuttle	6	81.29%	71,561
(AZ) ITA Airways	7	80.29%	91,841
(D8) Norwegian Air International	8	79.03%	41,215
(AY) Finnair	9	75.16%	45,727
(LO) LOT - Polish Airlines	10	75.08%	85,902

In Latin America the results were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(AD) Azul	1	88.93%	279,722
(H2) Sky Airline	2	88.74%	27,161
(CM) Copa Airlines	3	88.02%	104,083
(LA) LATAM Airlines	4	86.31%	451,651
(AV) SA AVIANCA	5	83.48%	144,525
(AR) Aerolineas Argentinas	6	82.02%	94,982
(AM) Aeromexico	7	75.83%	113,814
(Y4) Volaris	8	71.61%	187,502

In Asia Pacific the leaders were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(FD) Thai AirAsia	1	91.56%	66,043
(NH) ANA	2	88.61%	162,370
(JL) JAL	3	88.00%	165,981
(HO) Juneyao Airlines	4	86.65%	88,115
(6E) IndiGo	5	84.11%	561,864
(I5) AirAsia India	6	83.70%	60,882
(NZ) Air New Zealand	7	81.29%	156,591
(MH) Malaysia Airlines	8	80.99%	95,962
(UK) Vistara	9	80.98%	87,901
(MM) Peach Aviation	10	79.81%	56,176

In the Middle East and Africa the most on-time airlines were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(WY) Oman Air	1	91.38%	29,631
(RJ) Royal Jordanian	2	86.76%	28,887
(KU) Kuwait Airways	3	81.64%	25,982
(EK) Emirates	4	81.30%	137,589
(QR) Qatar Airways	5	78.32%	152,377
(ET) Ethiopian Airlines	6	77.30%	102,571
(ME) Middle East Airlines	7	75.91%	20,654
(AT) Royal Air Maroc	8	72.01%	45,062
(LY) EL AL	9	69.80%	23,274
(SV) Saudia	10	69.75%	172,797

The leading low cost carriers were:

Airline	On time ranking	On time arrival	Total flights
(7G) StarFlyer	1	95.23%	21,894
(6J) Solaseed Air	2	94.53%	27,486
(FD) Thai AirAsia	3	91.56%	66,043
(AD) Azul	4	88.93%	279,722
(H2) Sky Airline	5	88.74%	27,161
(HD) Air Do	6	88.34%	22,187
(6E) IndiGo	7	84.11%	561,864
(I2) Iberia Express	8	83.80%	35,665
(I5) AirAsia India	9	83.70%	60,882
(VY) Vueling	10	82.04%	197,546