Aviation analytics company Cirium has released its rankings for the most on-time airlines in the world in 2024. Data is based on hundreds of real-time feeds, from airlines, distribution systems, and aviation authorities, providing a thorough and objective view of the performance of carriers.
Jeremy Bowen, Cirium CEO, said, “2024 was a difficult year for airlines, facing a large-scale IT outage, and unseasonable and severe weather patterns. Despite these challenges, these airlines and airports have worked tirelessly to ensure their customers have a smooth journey and reach their destination on-time.”
Here are the results for the most on-time airlines in 2024.
The most on-time airline in the world
The airline with the best on-time performance in 2024 might be an airline you don’t know all that much about. Safair is a small regional airline based out of O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) in South Africa and, according to Cirium, it has achieved an on-time percentage of 93.82% across 2024.
Safair operates a fleet of Boeing 737s for passenger transport, including several -800s and 10 ‘classic’ 737-400s. It also operates one of the world’s largest fleets of L-100 Hercules cargo aircraft, although those weren’t included in the on-time performance report.
Close behind Safair is Oman Air, with on-time performance of 90.3%. Copa Airlines in Panama rounded out the top three with 88.2% on-time arrivals.
Most on-time global airline
| RANKING | WINNER | OTP |
| 1 | Aeromexico | 86.70% |
| 2 | Saudia | 86.35% |
| 3 | Delta Air Lines | 83.46% |
| 4 | LATAM Airlines | 82.89% |
| 5 | Qatar Airways | 82.83% |
The gold standard for Cirium’s on-time awards is in the global airline category. In 2024, we’ve seen a surprise winner, which has not even featured in the top on-time airlines in recent years. According to Cirium, the most on-time airline of 2024 was Aeromexico, with an on-time arrival rate of 86.7%.
Cirium analysts pointed out that, for Aeromexico, this is a sign of huge improvements. In 2023, the airline achieved on-time performance of just 77%, improving operations by more than 9% over the year.
In second place was Saudia, with 86.3% of flights arriving on time, almost a 5% improvement over 2023. And in third was the three-time platinum winner Delta Air Lines with an on-time performance of 83.5%.
Not all airlines qualify for the award, as entrance requires that they fly to at least three continents and provide a certain number of available seat miles (ASMs). As such, some of the regional airlines don’t qualify, even if they had a higher on-time percentage in the report.
North America’s most punctual airlines
| RANKING | WINNER | OTP |
| 1 | Delta Air Lines (DL) | 83.46% |
| 2 | United Airlines (UA) | 80.93% |
| 3 | Alaska Airlines (AS) | 79.25% |
| 4 | American Airlines | 77.78% |
| 5 | Southwest Airlines | 77.77% |
Cirium tracked all the airlines in North America to find out who operated with the least delays. Given the global results, it’s no huge surprise to discover that Delta Air Lines took the crown in this category too with its 83.5% on-time performance.
For Delta, this is an incredible feat, given that the airline operates more than 1.6 million flights a year. The airline had to battle with the major CrowdStrike outage in the height of the summer, but managed to pull things back with a 91% on-time rate in August 2024.
Cirium’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Malik applauded Delta’s performance, saying, “They run a very good operation, and I’ve got to congratulate the COO John Laughter for their impeccable performance in this area.”
Nipping at the heels of Delta is United Airlines, improving its on-time performance in 2024 to become the second most on-time airline in North America. United’s on-time performance came in at 81%, around a percentage point better than in 2023.
In third place is Alaska Airlines with on-time arrivals of 79.3%. This was a bit of a dip from its performance of 82.3% in 2023, which secured it second position, but enough to hold on to third place for 2024.
Europe’s most on-time airlines
| RANKING | WINNER | OTP |
| 1 | Iberia Express | 84.69% |
| 2 | Iberia | 81.58% |
| 3 | SAS | 81.40% |
| 4 | Vuelling Airlines | 81.20% |
| 5 | Norwegian | 79.23% |
For the third year in a row, IAG’s Iberia has clinched both first and second place in Europe’s on-time performance. Iberia Express, the regional subsidiary, took the top spot with an on-time performance of 84.7%, while mainline Iberia came in second with 81.6%, an incredible performance from the group given the flooding that happened in Spain.
A newcomer in this category provided a surprise third place as SAS secured its spot on the leaderboard. There’s been a great deal going on at the Scandinavian airline, as it emerged from restructuring and joined SkyTeam during the summer. Malik noted that the airline has been “making huge strides in investment in IT and technology and also fleets as well.”
In the UK, Virgin Atlantic led the way with 74.01% of its flights arriving on time, while Wizz Air UK came in at 70.5% with easyJet coming in third with 68.4% on-time arrivals. British Airways flyers will be disappointed to see just 67.83% of the company’s flights arrived on time.
Copa cleans up again in Latin America
| RANKING | WINNER | OTP |
| 1 | Copa Airlines | 88.22% |
| 2 | Aeromexico | 86.70% |
| 3 | Caribbean Airlines | 85.47% |
| 4 | Gol Linhas Aereas | 84.90% |
| 5 | Aerolineas Argentinas | 83.06% |
For the 10th year in a row, Copa Airlines is the most on-time airline in the Latin American region with a performance of 88.2%. Sadly for Copa, it doesn’t provide the network to qualify for the global award, but clearly runs a great operation to achieve such a high on-time performance.
As Cirium’s Mike Malik noted, “behind every great airport is a great airline,” and Copa’s success is a good example of this. Its home airport – Panama Tocumen (PTY) – won the most on-time medium airport in the ranking as well, with a performance of more than 90%.
Aeromexico will have to be satisfied with second place in its regional rankings with 86.7% and is closely followed by Caribbean Airlines in third at 85.5%.
The Middle East is setting the bar for operational excellence
| RANKING | WINNER | OTP |
| 1 | Safair | 93.82% |
| 2 | Oman Air | 90.27% |
| 3 | Royal Air Jordanian | 87.02% |
| 4 | Saudia | 86.35% |
| 5 | Kuwait Airways | 84.63% |
Although Safair claimed the crown for on-time performance in the Middle East & Africa (ME&A) regions, the ability of Middle Eastern airlines and airports to run a tight ship must not be understated. The other two winners in the ME&A category were Oman Air (90.2%) and Royal Jordanian (87%), all of which surpassed the global winner – Aeromexico – although the airlines didn’t qualify for that category.
More operational excellence becomes apparent when you consider the airports being utilized by these airlines too. In particular, Riyadh King Khalid International Airport (RUH) won both the awards for most on-time global and large airport, with its home carrier Saudia also coming second in the global rankings.
Cirium CMO Mike Malik noted, “Something’s going on in Saudi Arabia. Both Saudi Arabian Airlines and also the airports are doing exceedingly well. They’re really pulling out all the stops at this current time.”
It’s no secret that Saudi Arabia is pouring money into its aviation industry under its Vision 2030 initiative. The crowning glory of this will be the launch of its homegrown startup, Riyadh Air, set to launch in 2025 and based at King Khalid Airport. Saudi Arabia wants to have 300 million air passengers by 2030 and is preparing its airports, airlines, and hospitality sector to achieve this goal. Running a tight, on-time operation is a crucial component of future success.
Asia Pacific sees a switch at the top
| RANKING | WINNER | OTP |
| 1 | JAL | 80.90% |
| 2 | ANA | 80.62% |
| 3 | Singapore Airlines | 78.67% |
| 4 | Air New Zealand | 77.58% |
| 5 | Thai AirAsia | 77.46% |
For the past few years, ANA has dominated the on-time rankings for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. In 2024, it’s been pipped at the post by fellow Japanese airline Japan Airlines (JAL) with an on-time performance of 80.9%, less than half a percentage point ahead of ANA (80.6%)
Both airlines saw a slight reduction in on-time performance compared with 2023 when ANA came in with 82.7% and JAL at 82.6%. In 2022, they were even more on-time, at 88.6% for ANA and 88% for JAL. However, both years saw reduced flying activity due to the pandemic, so this is the first year that either airline has operated anything close to a ‘normal’ schedule.
In third place for APAC, Singapore Airlines kept up a good show with an on-time performance of 78.7%. Given the size of Singapore Airlines’ network and its operation of some of the busiest and longest flights in the world, maintaining that performance is a great result.