Japanese Carriers Had the Two Best On-Time Performances in 2017

Japan's two major carriers were the most punctual among the world's largest airlines in 2017, and Delta led major U.S. carriers in on-time performance, according to OAG's annual Punctuality League report. It's based on 57 million flight records in 2017 and defines on time as arriving within 15 minutes of scheduled time.

Japan Airlines posted an on-time performance rate of 85.3 percent in 2017, and ANA was on time 83.8 percent of the time, ranking both at the top of the world's 20 largest carriers. Delta ranked third with 82.8 percent. All three of the U.S. legacy carriers ranked in the top 10 among the world's 20 largest carriers, as did Alaska Airlines and Southwest.

Among the 250 largest carriers in the world, the most punctual were AirBaltic at 90 percent, Hong Kong Airlines at 88.8 percent and Hawaiian Airlines at 87.2 percent. International Airlines Group's Barcelona-based Vueling was the most punctual low-cost carrier with an on-time performance of 85.3 percent, an improvement of 13 percentage points, according to OAG.

Among airports with at least 30 million departing seats per year, passengers were most likely to be on time departing from Tokyo Haneda, from Madrid and from Atlanta, according to OAG.