Cirium (formerly FlightGlobal) has released its annual on-time report by airlines and airports. The report at 54 pages gives a comprehensive report of mainline, network and regional airlines operating in regions around the world. This same report also shows on-time performance by departing airports in those same worldwide regions. Due to space constraints, I will cover the on-time airline performance for the North America region. The airport ranks will by for the global and large airport classes.
All data and charts are used by permission from Cirium.
Delta Wins The North America Region For On-Time Performance
The top three 2019 on-time airlines in both the mainline and network categories are:
- Delta
- Alaska
- Southwest
Congratulations to Delta Airlines for the outstanding performance. With that said, there is a caveat to be considered. One factor that affected airline on-time performance was aircraft available for dispatch. The groundings of the Boeing 737 MAX did have a dispatch impact for:
- Alaska
- American
- Southwest
- United
China Leads Global And Large Airport Operations Performance
GLOBAL AIRPORT SECTOR
Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) took the top spot in the global on-time airport performance. They now have three runways and airport operations have managed to keep all three runways operational year-round. China took seven of the top ten honors. Chinese operations do have challenges due to congested airways and conservative air traffic control regulations. The only U. S. airport to make the top ten global airports is Salt Lake City (SLC) at tenth place.
LARGE AIRPORT SECTOR
Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) took the top spot in the large on-time airport performance. In this review, China took eight of the top ranks. The top U. S. airport, Honolulu International Airport (HNL) came in at 18th place.
Final Thoughts
Congratulations to Delta Airlines for the first-place finish. They do have a great operational management team in place. It will be interesting to see what happens for 2020 if the Boeing 737MAX can reenter airline service soon as this affects timely dispatch for four major airlines.
In airport operations, Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) now has three runways and the ability to keep them operational all year. China is a surprise based on severe operating constraints in Chinese airspace. I was surprised that the best U. S. airport was Salt Lake City (SLC), taking the tenth spot in the global airport sector. Congratulations to the operations team at Salt Lake City for a job well done.
