Airline punctuality is still recovering from the pandemic with some 'hurdles' still to clear in 2023. Photo / David Cohen, Tomas Williams; Unsplash

Air NZ most punctual in Pacific? 2023 On-time performance stats revealed

Author: Thomas Bywater,
Publish Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2024, 2:17pm

Got a flight to catch in Bogota? You’d better be on time to the airport.

The most punctual airports and carriers have been revealed in the annual Cirium On Time Performance rankings for 2023.

Colombia’s national flag carrier Avianca Airlines was crowned the most punctual global airline for the year, with 85.73 per cent of its almost quarter-million services arriving on time. Not bad for an airline that declared bankruptcy in December 2021.

Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport also flew up the rankings this year, landing fourth with just over 84 per cent of flights departing on time.

“On-time performance” (OTP) is industry-wide measurement, defined as flights that arrive at their destination within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time.

Airport punctuality is based on the proportion of flights that depart within 15 minutes of their scheduled take-off time.

Closer to home, Air New Zealand scored an impressive 79.68 per cent OTP score, earning it fifth place in the most punctual airlines serving Asia and the Pacific (Apac). The “completion factor” was also world-class, with Cirium reporting 96.54 per cent of flights reached their intended destination.

Air New Zealand was also the best in the region for “Within Block Time” arrival - the industry measurement for arriving at the gate after landing - at 75.12 per cent.

However, the koru tailfin was a long way behind the top-placed airlines in Apac, with Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines tied for top spot at 82.75 and 82.58 per cent punctuality respectively. This was a slight fall for ANA, which was crowned the world’s most punctual last year.

Christchurch Airport was the top-performing New Zealand port of departure and 15th top performing small airport for the year.

With 83.88 per cent of 65,896 fights departing on time, the South Island airport out-performed the larger Auckland. That put the Cantabrian airstrip within touching distance of top-performing Minneapolis St Paul, which had an OTP rating of 84.44 per cent, albeit with 223,921 more departures.

Despite more flights taking to the skies last year and airports bouncing back from the pandemic, overall OTP was trending down, particularly in Australia.

On Time Performance dropped across Australian domestic flights at the end of last year. Image / Bitre

The 2023 league table was 83.76 per cent from a total of 5.8 million flights.

Jeremy Bowen the CEO of acknowledged that there were some “hurdles” to overcome last year.

“Airline and airport winners steered through the year’s operational hurdles with exceptional performance. Their relentless pursuit of efficiency and punctuality is commendable as we venture into 2024,” he said.

While Australian carriers did not make the league tables, most were lagging far behind the competition.

In Australia the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (Bitre), which publishes monthly on time performance, showed that industry average OTP for Australian airlines in November 2023 dropped below 65 percent for the first time since July 2022.

Bonza which made its OTP debut was found to be the most punctual in November 2023, with 73.9 per cent.

Qantas meanwhile recorded 66.3 per cent OTP that month.

Full annual figures are not yet available for 2023 from Bitre.