The World’s Most Punctual Airlines

There’s nothing quite as bad as a flying experience plagued by lateness. It can start with the plane servicing your upcoming flight being late to the gate, and then your entire trip ends up being pushed back by default.

Knowing the importance of punctuality throughout the travel experience, data platform OAG annually looks at on-time performance data for the world’s mega and low-cost airlines to determine which are your best bets for being on time, all the time.

In this year’s punctuality report, OAG found, out of the top 20 mega-airlines of the world, All Nippon Airways ranked most punctual, on time nearly 90 percent of the time. Japan Airlines followed close behind, with less than a 1 percent punctuality difference between the two airlines. Rounding out the top five, on-time airlines were LATAM Airlines, Azul Airlines and IndiGo.

If you’re traveling in the United States; however, your best bet for on-time domestic flights is Delta Air Lines, followed by Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines and Spirit Airlines.

While none of the airlines featured boasted an on-time rating of more than 90 percent, John Grant, chief analyst, OAG, said the rankings the report did find are encouraging. He said, “Global on-time performance is reaching levels last seen before the pandemic as carriers work to ease operational pressures and delays. Confidence in the travel recovery is growing with airlines placing new aircraft orders, new routes being announced and labor challenges seemingly subsiding.”