The largest U.S. airlines fared well in the crucial
performance indicator of timeliness when compared to other carriers around the
world in 2017.
Meanwhile, Hawaiian Airlines led the way in timeliness among
all mainline U.S. carriers and finished third in the world, according to an OAG
report.
Among the world's 20 largest airlines in terms of scheduled
flights are five from the U.S: Delta, Alaska, United, American and Southwest.
Delta led the way for the U.S. among what OAG dubbed the "mega carriers,"
recording an on-time rate of 82.76% in 2017. Among the other top 20 carriers,
only Japanese airlines JAL (85.27%) and ANA (83.81%) performed better. OAG
defines "on-time" as a flight that arrives within 14 minutes of its
arrival time -- the same standard that U.S. Department of Transportation uses.
Alaska came in fifth among the 20 largest world carriers
with an on-time performance of 81.06%. United was seventh (79.86%), American
was ninth (78.97%) and Southwest tied with British Airways for tenth (78.55%).
The OAG report, titled "Punctuality League 2018,"
also ranked the on-time performance of the 250 largest airlines in the world
and of low-cost carriers. With an on-time performance of 87.24%, Hawaiian
finished third in the world, behind only AirBaltic (90.01%) and Hong Kong Airlines
(88.83%). Delta, the second-best performing mainline U.S. carrier, ranked 16th
in the world.
Spanish carrier Vueling led the way among low-cost carriers
with an on-time performance of 82.2%, while Frontier was the leading U.S.
low-cost performer, arriving on-time 78.91% of the time, good enough for 11th
worldwide in the category.
OAG also ranked airports for the timeliness of arriving and
departing flights. U.S. airports fared well in the "mega airport"
category -- those with more than 30 million departing seats per year --
occupying three of the top five spots. Topping the category was Tokyo Haneda
with an on-time performance of 86.75%. Delta-dominated Atlanta was third
(82.38%), United hub Denver was fourth (82.24%) and American hub Dallas/Fort
Worth was fifth (81.36%).
Another Delta hub, Minneapolis-St. Paul, had an on-time
performance of 85.72%, leading airports with between 20 million and 30 million
departing seats.