The 10 Most Punctual Airlines of the Year

Hawaiian Airlines was the most punctual North American airline of 2015.

It was also the only North American airline to make the top 10 of all airlines worldwide in the 2015 OAG Punctuality League.

OAG is an England-based provider of up-to-the-minute aviation data.

The company’s latest annual Punctuality League report is based on more than 50 million flight records.

The report ranks airlines and airports based on what OAG calls their “on-time performance.”

OAG defines on-time airlines as those with “arrivals that take place strictly less than 15 minutes after schedule.”

The top 10 airlines overall were:

1. AirBaltic (average on-time performance of 94.39 percent)
2. Copa Airlines (91.69)
3. Azul Brazilian Airlines (91.03 percent)
4. Japan Airlines (90.44 percent)
5. All Nippon Airways (89.65 percent)
6. Finnair (89.52 percent)
7. TAM Airlines (89.5 percent)
8. Austrian Airlines (89.28 percent)
9. Hawaiian Airlines (89.11 percent)
10. LOT Polish Airlines (88.88 percent)

The top 10 North American airlines were:

1. Hawaiian Airlines (89.11 percent)
2. Alaska Airlines (86.38 percent)
3. WestJet (85.88 percent)
4. Delta Air Lines (84.46 percent)
5. Southwest Airlines (82.12 percent)
6. Virgin America (81.58 percent)
7. American Airlines (80.14 percent)
8. Air Canada (79.46 percent)
9. United Airlines (78.99 percent)
10. JetBlue (78.26 percent)

OAG’s latest punctuality report notes that airports continued pushing to improve on-time performance in 2015:

Performance across the airport categories has improved this year, reflecting the hard work on the ground at airports across the globe.

OAG defines on-time airports as those with “departures and arrivals that take place strictly less than 15 minutes after schedule.”

Among large airports (more than 20 million departing scheduled seats per year), Tokyo’s Haneda Airport ranked No. 1. North American airports in Minneapolis (No. 4), Atlanta (No. 8) and Seattle (No. 10) also made this top 10.

Among medium-sized airports (10 million to 20 million departing scheduled seats per year), Denmark’s Copenhagen Airport ranked No. 1. North American airports in Salt Lake City (No. 5) and Honolulu (No. 8) also made this top 10.

Among small airports (defined as those with fewer than 10 million departing scheduled seats per year), Japan’s Osaka International Airport ranked No. 1. There were no North American airports in the top 10 small airports.

Are you surprised that only one North American airline was among the 10 most punctual airlines last year? Share your thoughts below or on Facebook.