Qatar Airways and Latin America best in March for punctual flying

DPA
·2 min read
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A Qatar Airways Airbus A380 flies over Frankfurt. The Qatari carrier was found to be the world's most punctual in March. Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
A Qatar Airways Airbus A380 flies over Frankfurt. The Qatari carrier was found to be the world's most punctual in March. Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa

Travellers hoping to avoid airport delays are best to book with Qatar Airways or fly in Latin America.

That's because Qatar Airways was the world's most "on-time" carrier in March, according to data published by Cirium, an aviation industry analytics business, which show Latin America as the region with the most timely arrivals and departures.

Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines was listed second overall, but the rest of the top 5 was made up of Colombia’s Avianca, AeroMexico and Chile's LATAM Airlines, with Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport the most on-time departure point.

Almost 90% of Lima's approximately 14,000 flights for the month lifted off within 15 minutes of schedule, while Santiago proved March's third best airport worldwide.

Although 6th overall, Delta Airways perhaps had the most impressive airline performance, considering it operated almost 145,000 flights during the month, of which almost 86% were deemed to be on time. Over 87% of top–placed Qatar Airways' roughly 17,000 flights took off or landed within the quarter-hour timeframe.

Spanish carrier Iberia, which was ranked 7th overall, was the best-placed European airline, followed by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). For flights within Europe, Austrian Airlines was the most punctual, followed by LOT Polish Airlines and Aegean. Oslo, at 4th overall, was Europe's best ranked airport, with Istanbul, Athens and Vienna following in the global top 10.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a Geneva-based organization representing around 300 airlines that carry over 80% of the world's passengers, said recently that worldwide international demand had in February exceeded 2019 or pre-pandemic levels for the first time, though it described the measurement as "skewed" due to 2024 being a leap year.