There’s nothing worse than having to wait around at the airport while a flight is interminably delayed. So it’s good to know which ones are least likely to hold up your journey.
OAG, the world’s leading air travel intelligence company, has released its annual Punctuality League – and the winner for 2016 happens to be right here in the UK.
Birmingham Airport topped the list as the most successful medium-sized airport for keeping flights running on time.
In fact, over the course of the year an impressive 91 per cent of all flights out of and arriving into Birmingham left/arrived on time.
The airport had over 100,000 scheduled flights in 2016 and enjoyed its busiest Christmas ever, with around 500,000 passengers passing through.
The most popular route from Birmingham Airport was to Dublin, Ireland. It scored 95 per cent for punctuality on this route.
And Birmingham wasn’t the only British winner in the league.
Newcastle Airport topped the small airport category as the most punctual airport in the world, boasting a success rate of 90.94 per cent for flights leaving and arriving on time.
British low-cost airlines fared well too. In a list compiling the most punctual budget airlines, UK company Monarch came top with 85.67 per cent of all flights departing and arriving on time.
Jet2 also made the top 10, swinging into fourth position with a punctually rate of 82.64 per cent.
“The UK’s airports and airlines have always been leaders in the global aviation industry, delivering exceptionally high service levels,” said John Grant, senior analyst at OAG.
“The success of Birmingham is just another example of how the UK’s regional airports have created world-class facilities and networks that both connect their regional communities to the world, and provide valuable economic growth.”
OAG’s punctuality league is based on approximately 54 million flight records using full-year data from 2016 – the largest ever number of flights that it's tracked in a single year.
While the UK has clearly nailed it for small and medium-sized airports, when it comes to large and major airports we still have a way to go.
The most punctual major airport was Tokyo Haneda in Japan, for the second year running, while the most timely large airport was Surabaya in Indonesia.
No UK airport made the top 10 for either category.
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