Indoor waterfall, rooftop pool, yoga studio.
There are a lot of bells and whistles at airports these days. But most travelers would happily trade them for flights that always arrive on time.
Passenger rights company AirHelp Ranking 239 airports in 69 countriesfocusing on the on-time performance of flights operating from May 2023 to April 2024.
This metric accounts for 60% of each airport’s overall score, with on-time performance defined as flights arriving within 15 minutes of the published arrival time.
Passenger reviews of each airport and travelers’ ratings of its food and shops account for the remaining 40 percent of the score, according to the AirHelp website.
This is the result.
Best airports for on-time flights
However, looking through quarantine on-time performance scores, a different list emerges – one dominated by South Africa, Colombia, Brazil and the United States:
- Cape Town Airport, South Africa — 8.6
- Brasilia-Juselino Kubitschek Presidential Airport, Brazil — 8.6
- Panama City Tocumen Airport, Panama — 8.6
- Nagoya Chubu Airport, Japan — 8.5
- Osaka Itami Airport, Japan — 8.5
- Salt Lake City Airport, USA — 8.4
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, USA — 8.4
- Hamad Airport, Kadado — 8.3
- Belem Vadcan Airport, Brazil — 8.3
- Bogota Eldorado Airport, Colombia — 8.3
- Rafael Núñez Airport, Cartagena, Colombia — 8.3
- Medellin José MarÃa Cordoba Airport, Colombia — 8.3
- Johannesburg or Tambo Airport, South Africa — 8.2
- Recife/Guararapes-Gilberto Freire Airport, Brazil — 8.2
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, USA — 8.2
According to the AirHelp website, these scores represent the percentage of flights that arrive on time.
“For example, a score of 8.5 means 85% of flights are on time,” it noted.
Conversely, the airports with the worst average on-time performance, according to the ranking, are Tunis Carthage in Tunisia (48% average on-time performance), London Gatwick (57%) and Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport in Portugal (58%).
To arrive at the score, AirHelp said it cross-referenced data from government agencies, airports and flight tracking providers.
Flight analytics company OAG said that in general, on-time performance is related to airline and airport operations.
However, Other factors are at play also.
“External disruptions such as adverse weather conditions, congestion, accidents and strikes inevitably cause delays,” the company’s website says.
Still, OAG says on-time performance remains a powerful metric for airlines and airports to differentiate and market their brands.
Other honors
According to the rankings, when passenger opinion scores are isolated, Nashville Airport, Singapore Changi Airport and Doha’s Hamad Airport come out on top.
Doha Hamad ranked first overall, with its food and shops also scoring highest, followed by Dubai Airport and Japan’s Sapporo New Chitose Airport.
Hamad International Airport was also named the “Best Airline in the World” by Air Transport Ratings skytrux in April.
Complete ranking of 239 airlines Can be found on the AirHelp website.
