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Flight Stats
Airline and Airport On-time Performance - September 2009 Report
October 3, 2009
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In this issue .....
US Carriers - August 2009 Numbers
Performance Comparison at the World's 50 busiest airports
North American Airport Performance
European Airline Performance Report
Major Asian Airline Performance Report
About These Reports
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FlightStats is an airline, airport, and travel information service provided by Conducive Technology Corp. On our Web site at http://www.flightstats.com/, visitors can get flight status, track flights, view on-time performance ratings by flight or by airline, check for current airport delay and weather information, and much more.

FlightStats provides global flight status information and is the definitive source for historical airline performance data. Conducive Technology is also a leading supplier of air travel information services to travel agencies, logistics professionals, airlines, airports and industry analysts.
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US Carriers - September 2009 Numbers
US airlines' 2009 on-time performance continued its unbroken string of improvements over 2007 and 2008. The top 36 US carriers posted a combined on-time performance level of 85.53% in September, up from 79.3% in August and better than the 83.06% they delivered in September 2008.



All but three of the carriers we studied performed at 80% or better. The top ten US airlines for on-time performance in September were:

  1. Hawaiian - 93.6%
  2. Chautauqua - 92.09%
  3. Frontier - 91.88%
  4. Freedom - 91.7%
  5. Horizon Air - 91.15%
  6. Shuttle America - 90.79%
  7. Alaska - 89.32%
  8. Midwest - 88.81%
  9. GoJet - 88.65%
  10. Southwest - 88.16%

Alaska and Southwest led the majors again.

  1. Alaska (7th overall) - 89.32%
  2. Southwest Airlines (10th overall) - 88.16%
  3. United Airlines (12th overall) - 87.44%
  4. US Airways (13th overall) - 87.32%
  5. Continental (15th overall) - 87.19%
  6. Northwest (25th overall) - 84.65%
  7. American Airlines (28th overall) - 84.15%
  8. Delta (31st overall) - 81.77%


Air Wisconsin, Great Lakes, and Atlantic Southeast were the only US carriers with less than 80% of their flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule.

Here are links to this month's detailed US airline reports:
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Top 50 World Airports -
September 2009 Arrival Performance
Tokyo Haneda and Seoul Inchon had the best on-time arrival record among the busiest airports in the world. Five US airports were among the top ten performers.

  1. Tokyo HND - 95.88%
  2. Seoul ICN - 91.46%
  3. Paris, ORY - 92.42%
  4. Amsterdam AMS - 90.42%
  5. Phoenix PHX - 90.07%
  6. Seattle SEA - 89.21%
  7. Paris CDG - 88.8%
  8. Orlando MCO - 88.53%
  9. Los Angeles LAX - 88%
  10. Washington, DC IAD - 87.91%

Atlanta was the only US airport among the bottom ten airports in September, a welcome relief to New York travelers, no doubt.

  • Frankfurt FRA - 76.9%
  • Dubai DXB - 76.72%
  • Manchester MAN - 75.01%
  • Atlanta ATL - 74.82%
  • Beijing PEK - 74.72%
  • Guangzhou CAN - 73.55%
  • London LGW - 73%
  • Istanbul IST - 71.25%
  • London STN - 70.82%
  • Mexico City MEX - 68.12%


Download the reports for the ACI/IATA top 50 World Airports here:
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North American Airports - September 2009 Arrival Performance Report
Oakland easily retained the top position on the on-time arrival performance list for the top 40 North American airports:

  1. Oakland OAK - 93.09%
  2. Hebron/Cincinnati CVG - 90.72%
  3. Cleveland CLE - 90.7%
  4. Portland, OR PDX - 90.56%
  5. Phoenix PHX - 90.07%
  6. Salt Lake City SLC - 89.97%
  7. Seattle SEA - 89.21%
  8. San Diego SAN - 89.11%
  9. Washington, DC - DCA - 89.01%
  10. Saint Louis STL - 88.97%

The average for the top 40 North American airports was nearly 85% on-time arrival performance for the month.

Thunderstorms and poor visibility plagued Atlanta in September dropping ATL nearly to the bottom of the list.

36. Miami MIA - 81.32%
37. Philadelphia PHL - 79.47%
38. New York JFK - 78.77%
39. Atlanta ATL - 74.82%
40. Mexico City, MX (MEX) - 68.12%

Download the reports on North American airport arrival performance here:
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European Carriers - September 2009 Arrival Numbers
While Binter Canarias (the Hawaiian Airlines of Europe) continued to turn in near-perfect results, SAS and KLM were once again the top performing major European carriers delivering 93.39% and 90.9% of their flights within 15 minutes of published schedules against an average for the group of 84.44%. The top ten performers included:

  1. Binter Canarias - 98.59%
  2. VLM Airlines - 95.94%
  3. Brit Air - 93.96%
  4. SAS Norway - 93.72%
  5. SAS - 93.39%
  6. KLM Cityhopper - 92.59%
  7. Wideroe's - 92.12%
  8. Tyrolean - 91.46%
  9. KLM - 90.9%
  10. Aeroflot - 90.68%

The bottom five airlines for on-time arrivals included Turkish Airlines , Air One, Meridiana , TAP, and Olympic Airlines.

Download the report on European carrier arrival performance here:
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Major Asian Airlines Performance Report
We examined the performance of major airlines serving Asian destinations in September. Japanese carriers turned in the best performance. The top 10 Asian carriers for the month were:

  1. JAL Express - 95.47%
  2. JAL - 94.49%
  3. KAL - 93.18%
  4. Asiana - 93.13%
  5. All Nippon - 93.01%
  6. Japan Transocean - 92.34%
  7. Air Nippon - 92.09%
  8. Bangkok Airways - 91.92%
  9. Singapore - 90.58%
  10. Thai Airways - 86.39%


Note: Our coverage of Asian carriers is limited due to a lack of available data sources. We listed only those carriers for which we have statistically significant gate departure and arrival information. If you don't see your airline listed here or would like to see a more complete representation of your data, please contact meara@flightstats.com to arrange for a data exchange.

Download the report on European carrier arrival performance here:

Asian Airlines September 2009 Arrival Performance Report (.pdf)
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About These Reports
These on-time performance reports for worldwide carriers and airports are generated from FlightStats Analytics. We track the performance of over 150,000 flights per day, archive the data for analysis and publication, and provide real time flight status to millions of travelers world wide each day.

In other words, no we don't have someone at the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) leaking information to us. We gather it ourselves in real time and archive the data for analysis and reporting.

The BTS numbers are usually published a month later than ours, are based upon different data gathering techniques, and built from slightly different data sets.

  • BTS reports only on US airlines and airports. FlightStats gathers data world-wide
  • BTS airline performance reports are based upon data reported by 19 US airlines, 18 of which constitute 1% or more of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues. FlightStats reports cover 45 US airlines and are based upon data gather in real time from a variety of sources including the US FAA, airlines reservation systems, direct feeds from airlines and airports.
  • BTS US airport performance reports are based upon information provided by the 32 U.S. airports that account for at least 1 percent of the nation's total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements. FlightStats equivalent reports are based upon archived real-time data covering the top 40 (i.e. busiest) North American airports.
  • Both BTS and FlightStats reports include information on the percentage of flights that arrived on time, were cancelled, were diverted. FlightStats breaks down the delays into 3 categories - late (15-29 minutes late at the gate), very late (30-44 minutes), and excessive (> 44 minutes). BTS simply reports that a flight is late (15 minutes or more).
  • FlightStats has more current data based upon real-time reporting. BTS data is published approximately 5 weeks after the close of a month as it relies on the airlines to file historical reports.
  • BTS also reports on baggage issues, passenger numbers, customer complaints and the causes of flight delays. FlightStats does not.

The articles in this issue include links to reports you can download with detailed performance data on the world's 50 busiest airports, US major airline performance, North American airport performance and European carrier performance.

We also track departure performance and can provide many different views into the data. Let us know if you need something in particular.

You may republish any and all data included in this report. We ask only that you attribute the data to FlightStats.com and include a link to http://www.flightstats.com if you publish the data in any form online.

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If you want to dig a bit deeper, please contact David White or Brad Exline
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