3 Charts Showing Top Global Airlines For On-Time Performance in 2016
Photo Credit: Pictured is a business traveler checking a departure board for a connecting flight at Frankfurt Airport, where 81.17 percent of flights arrived on-time in 2016. Skift / Dan Peltier
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Some airlines have done so much to pad their schedules and use other tactics to ensure they make it to gates on-time that it's difficult to know which carriers are actually the most punctual and time efficient. Passengers notice and this strategy likely helped a few airlines make these rankings.
Some airlines make on-time performance a priority while others focus on other in-flight service standards but airline travel intelligence company OAG said Delta Air Lines and Qantas were clear winners in 2016 for keeping flights on schedule.
Delta's on-time performance (84.29 percent) for full-year 2016 ranked ahead of the other two U.S. legacy carriers -- American and United -- and behind Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines, according to an OAG report that considered 54 million flights from hundreds of airlines that were operated last year.
OAG's analysis points out Delta is the largest airline by most flights operated to make its top 20 ranking for most on-time airlines in 2016 and operated the second highest number of flights of any global airline last year. "The thing that stuck out to me more than anything is how strong Delta has been across four of their five major hub airports," said John Grant, senior analyst at OAG. "We've seen that Delta has actually targeted on-time perfor
