Hawaiian Airlines, followed closely by Delta Air Lines, topped travel data provider OAG's list of the 50 most punctual airlines and airports in 2021 around the world. Airline rankings are based on available seat kilometers for the full year, while airport rankings are based on departing seats with a minimum threshold of 2.5 million annually.
Top Airline Rankings
Of the mainline carriers, Garuda Indonesia took the top spot, with an on-time performance of 95.1 percent, followed by All Nippon Airways (94.2 percent) and Copa Airlines (92.5 percent). The top three low-cost carriers were Eurowings at 95.6 percent, Viva Air Colombia at 89.7 percent and Transavia at 88.6 percent.
Of note, other than Viva Air Colombia, which increased the number of flights it operated compared with 2019 by 127 percent, these airlines operated between just 30 percent to 55 percent the number of flights as in 2019.
Hawaiian, with an on-time performance of 88.9 percent, was the top-ranked North American carrier, at No. 9 overall. This is the seventh year in a row it ranked as the top U.S. carrier, according to OAG. The largest U.S. carriers also made the list, including Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines, in that order.
OAG defines on-time performance as an arrival or departure within 15 minutes of a flight's scheduled time.
Top Airport Rankings
OAG identified the most punctual airports by mega, major, large, medium and small categories.
There were only three mega airports that made the list, and all are based in the United States: Charlotte, Detroit and Atlanta. These three also happen to be the only North American airports in the top 50.
There were two major airports ranked: Barcelona, at No. 33 with an on-time performance of 89.4 percent, and El Dorado in Bogota, at No. 45 with an on-time performance of 88.3 percent. Overall, the top three airports ranked by on-time performance were Spain's Menorca Airport at 96.2 percent and two in Greece: Rhodes International Airport at 95.4 percent and Heraklion International Airport at 95.1 percent.