You know the drill.

You get to the airport two hours early after checking in online like the tech-savvy person that you are. Then you hand over your luggage and head on over to the nearest coffee place, secure in the knowledge that you won’t miss your flight.

Then, your flight is, inevitably, delayed.

If you’re changing flights at another airport, the delay could seriously impact your stress levels, and the mad dash across OR Tambo to retrieve your luggage before boarding your connecting flight is the exercise, and rise in blood pressure, that you didn’t want or need.

Thankfully, the Official Aviation Guide (OAG) has just completed its annual Punctuality Report, ranking airlines in terms of on-time performance (OTP).

According to Traveller24, here’s what you need to know when booking a flight in 2020.

This year, if you’re travelling with FlySafair, your flight is more than likely to arrive 15 minutes within the scheduled arrival time – this is according to UK air travel intelligence company, OAG’s annual Punctuality Report [which is] based on the performance of an estimated 57.7 million flight records worldwide during 2019.

The Low Cost Carrier (LCC) topped the rankings for the Middle East and African region and is considerably ahead of the three biggest Middle Eastern Etihad, Qatar and Emirates carriers with an OTP of 94.4%.

Nice.

The report is pretty comprehensive, taking into account 250 airlines globally. This table provides a breakdown of the rankings.

source: OAG

The overall top airline in the world for punctuality is Garuda Indonesia with an OTP of 95.01%.

Which brings us to airports.

The world’s most on-time airport ranking is Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, at 83.4%. A major airport is determined as over 30m departing seats per annum. Cape Town international also made a showing in the on-time performance ranking for the world’s medium sized airports, ranking second with an on-time performance percentage of 84.6%, pipped for the top spot by Panama City with an percentage of 92.2%. Medium airport is defined by 5 – 10m departing seats per annum.

Those stats here:

Source: OAG

This is all incredibly useful info if you’re travelling this year. It’s also nice to see a South African airline so high in the rankings.

That South African Airways shame is real.

[source:traveller24]