The World’s Most Punctual Airline In October: Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines has topped the global list of airlines in punctuality, with the most on-time arrivals in October. The full-service carrier came out on top in Cirium’s monthly on-time performance (OTP) report, which also ranks airlines according to different regions in the world.

Delta on top

Delta Air Lines was the most punctual airline in the world in October, according to Cirium’s monthly OTP report. Cirium defines OTP as “an aircraft arrival at the gate under 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. Airport on-time performance is measured by on-time departing flights.”

Photo: Brandon Farris | Shutterstock

Cirium gathers data for its reports and publications through its partners, such as airlines, airports, OEMs, lessors, etc. It then analyzes information received from more than 2,000 data sources and publishes its monthly OTP report.

Delta took the top spot for global airlines in October with an OTP of 90.84%. avianca, the OTP leader last month, came in second this time with an OTP of 88.78%. The next three on the list are Qatar Airways, United Airlines, and Aeromexico, with OTPs of 87.56%, 86.31%, and 86.08%, respectively.

Other top rankers

The report also lists airlines according to different regions of the world. Naturally, Delta topped the list for North America and was followed by United, Alaska Airlines (86.07%), American Airlines (85.53%), and Spirit Airlines (80.98%).

In the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese airlines ANA and Japan Airlines occupied the top two spots, with OTPs of 85.08% and 83.88%, respectively. At 83.14%, Vietnam Airlines (VN) took the third spot in the APAC region.

Norwegian Air Shuttle topped the list for European carriers with an OTP of 86.10%. Iberia Express was second with an OTP score of 85.69%, while Austrian took the third spot with an OTP of 85.57%.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

In Latin America, avianca was followed by Caribbean Airlines, which was a close second with a score of 86.47%, a 3-point improvement over its September OTP performance. Aeromexico was third in the region with an OTP of 86.08%.

Oman Air was the leader in the Middle East, with an OTP of 93%. Safair maintained its number two position with an OTP of 90.81% and was followed by Qatar Airways in the third spot in the region with an OTP of 87.56%.

Busy days ahead

Cirium’s report comes at a time when Delta is preparing for a massive Thanksgiving weekend this month, expecting more than half a million passengers a day. Thanksgiving is one of the busiest traveling periods in the US, and all airlines expect a massive rush.

Photo: Lukas Wunderlich | Shutterstock

The carrier is due to fly around 515,000 passengers daily over Thanksgiving. More than a million passengers are expected to fly during the peak travel days – the Friday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday and Monday after. It’ll be interesting to see if the massive rush in the coming weeks will affect Delta’s OTP in any significant way.

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Source: Cirium