The Best Airlines for On-Time Performance

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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OAG, which dubs itself an “air travel intelligence company,” has released its top-10 rankings of the most and least punctual airlines in 2016. The group analyzed 54 million flight records using full-year data from 2016 to compile the list, and for the purposes of the study defined “on-time” as “a flight that arrives or departs within 14 minutes and 59 seconds (under 15 minutes) of its scheduled arrival/departure time.”

For mainline carriers in North America, the top spot was held (as it often is) by Hawaiian Airlines, which has the unfair advantage of flying almost exclusively between destinations with perfect weather. The top five was rounded out by Alaska, Delta, WestJet, and Southwest.

Virgin America came in 10th out of a list of 10 airlines. Notably absent was JetBlue, which finished just behind Virgin America in on-time performance.

Globally, Hawaiian still took the top spot for mainline carriers, followed by Copa Airlines, KLM, Qantas, and Japan Airlines. No domestic airlines made the top-five among global low-cost carriers, with Southwest coming closest at number seven.

Only two domestic cities made the top five in the ranking of major global airports—Honolulu and Salt Lake City came in at two and three, respectively—but eight ranked the top twenty in that category, including Portland, Oregon; Tampa; San Diego; and, perhaps surprisingly, Chicago Midway.

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