For the second year in a row, a South American carrier claimed the top spot for on-time performance in 2023, according to Cirium's annual review.
Avianca Airlines was the most on-time global airline last year at 85.7 percent, followed by Azul Airlines—2022's winner—at 85.5 percent and Qatar Airways at 85.1 percent.
U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines took fourth globally at 84.7 percent, again topping the list for North America. For the region, Delta was followed by Alaska Airlines at 82.3 percent, while American Airlines rounded out the top three at 80.6 percent. American also came in 10th on the global list.
Global and regional rankings differ because the qualifications used for the two categories are not identical, according to Cirium.
In addition, Delta for the third year in a row was the Cirium Platinum Award winner for global operational excellence.
In fifth globally was Spanish carrier Iberia at 84.4 percent. However, it came in second for Europe behind Iberia Express (84.6 percent) and was followed by Austrian Airlines in third at 83 percent.
In Latin America, Copa Airlines took top honors with an on-time performance of 89.5 percent, besting Avianca and Azul in the region. All Nippon Airways was first for Asia-Pacific at 82.8 percent, followed closely by Japan Airlines (82.6 percent) and Thai AirAsia (82.1 percent).
Top On-Time Airports
The top global airport for on-time performance was Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 84.44 percent. A hair behind was Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India, at 84.42 percent. Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport was third (84 percent).
The top five performers for large airports were the same as for the global airports.
Osaka International Airport took first for medium-sized airports at 90.7 percent. Second was Tocumen International Airport in Panama (90.5 percent) with Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport third (89.1 percent).
Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador, was tops for small airports at 90.3 percent, followed closely by Japan's Chubu Centrair International Airport (90.2 percent). Rounding out the top three for this category was Jose Joaquin de Olmedo Airport, also in Ecuador, at 88.8 percent.
Cirium considers a flight to be on time if it arrives withing 15 minutes of its originally scheduled gate arrival.
The company's data is based on more than "600 sources of real-time flight information," including airlines, airports, global distribution systems, positional data, civil aviation authorities, air navigation service providers, proprietary data partnerships and the internet, according to Cirium.