Indoor waterfalls, rooftop pools, yoga studios.
Airports have a lot of bells and whistles these days. But most travelers will happily trade those for consistently on-time flights.
The passenger rights company AirHelp ranked 239 airports in 69 countrieswith an emphasis on timely execution of flights operating from May 2023 to April 2024.
This measure accounted for 60% of each airport’s overall score, with on-time performance defined as flights arriving within 15 minutes of their published arrival time.
Passenger opinions of each airport, along with traveler ratings of its food and shops, accounted for the remaining 40 percent of the score, according to AirHelp’s website.
Here are the results.
The best airports for on-time flights
However, isolating the early performance results yields a different list — one dominated by South Africa, Colombia, Brazil and the United States:
- Cape Town Airport, South Africa — 8.6
- Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek 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, United States — 8.4
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, United States — 8.4
- Doha Hamad Airport, Qatar — 8.3
- Belém Val-de-Cans Airport, Brazil — 8.3
- Bogota El Dorado Airport, Colombia — 8.3
- Cartagena Rafael Núñez Airport, Colombia — 8.3
- Medellin Jose Maria Cordova Airport, Colombia — 8.3
- Johannesburg OR Tambo Airport, South Africa — 8.2
- Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre Airport, Brazil — 8.2
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, United States — 8.2
These scores represent the percentage of flights that arrive on time, according to AirHelp’s website.
“For example, a score of 8.5 means that 85% of flights were on time,” he says.
In contrast, the airports with the worst average on-time performance are Tunis Carthage Airport in Tunisia (48% average on time), London Gatwick Airport (57%) and Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon, Portugal (58%) , according to the ranking.
To get the scores, AirHelp said it cross-referenced data from government agencies, airports and flight tracking vendors.
In general, on-time performance is linked to airline and airport operations, according to flight analytics firm OAG.
However, other factors are at play very.
“Inevitably, external disturbances such as adverse weather conditions, congestion, incidents and labor actions may cause delays,” according to the company’s website.
However, on-time performance is a powerful indicator for airlines and airports to differentiate and promote their brands, according to the OAG.
Other distinctions
When passenger opinion scores were isolated, Nashville Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport and Doha’s Hamad Airport came out on top, according to the rankings.
Doha Hamad, which was ranked No. 1 overall, is also ranked first for its food and shopping, followed by Dubai Airport and Japan’s Sapporo New Chitose Airport.
Hamad International Airport was also named the “World’s Best Airline” by the aviation rating agency Skytrax in April.
The complete ranking of 239 airlines is available on the AirHelp website.
