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Airline and Airport On-time Performance - April 2009 Report
May 4, 2009
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In this issue .....
US Carriers - April 2009 Numbers
Performance Comparison at the World's 50 busiest airports
North American Airport Performance
European Airline Performance Report
About These Reports
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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 - April 2009 Numbers
The graph below shows that 2009 US carrier on-time arrival performance has improved over 2007 and 2008 in each of the first 4 months of 2009. The improvements are dwindling, however.



The small and mid-sized carriers are outperforming the majors. The top five US airlines for on-time performance in April were:

  • Hawaiian Airlines - 91.44%
  • Horizon Air - 89.56%
  • Mesaba Aviation - 88.58%
  • Chataqua - 85.15%
  • Skywest Airlines - 85.1%

Northwest, once again, edged out Southwest as the top performing major airline with 83.43% of its flights arriving on time.

  • Northwest 83.43%
  • Southwest 83.21%
  • USAirways 79.86%
  • United 79.28%
  • Delta 75.84%
  • American 73.21%
  • Continental 71.82%

Combining the numbers for Delta and Northwest yields an on-time performance percentage of 78.92% and places the merged airlines in the middle of the pack.

Small carriers comprise the list of five worst performers in April:

  • Colgan Air - 69.29%
  • Atlantic Southeast - 69%
  • Comair - 65.36%
  • Air Wisconsin - 66.51%
  • Freedom Airlines - 65.93%


Here are links to this month's detailed US airline reports:
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Top 50 World Airports -
April 2009 Arrival Performance
The two major Tokyo airports both appeared in the top five for on-time arrival performance in April. Tokyo Haneda (HND) topped the list with nearly 96% of its flights arriving on time. Tokyo Narita placed fifth with 87.73% of its flights in the on-time column. Seoul (ICN) 88.82%, Munich (MUC) 88.29% and Amsterdam Schipol (AMS) 87.9% rounded out the top five.

Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) was the only US airport in the top 10 at 87.17%.

The New York airports were all among the hardest major airports to reach with an on-time flight in April. Newark (EWR) was the only airport among the top 50 to bring in less than 60% of its flights on time:

  • Rome, Italy (FCO) - 65.19% on-time arrivals
  • New York (JFK) - 64.32%
  • Istanbul, TR (IST) - 63.82%
  • New York, La Guardia (LGA) - 62.98%
  • Newark (EWR) - 54.88%


Download the reports for the ACI/IATA top 50 World Airports here:
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North American Airports - April 2009 Arrival Performance Report
Oakland (OAK) is on a roll and once again topped the list for North American airport performance by delivering 88.27% of its flights to the gate on-time. The top five were:

  • Oakland (OAK) - 88.27%
  • Salt Lake City (SLC) - 87.76%
  • Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) - 87.17%
  • Vancouver BC (YVR) - 87.02%
  • Portland, OR (PDX) - 86.42%

The average for the top 40 North American airports was a 77.9% on-time arrival performance for the month.

Newark (EWR) had the worst on-time performance for the sixth straight month among the 40 busiest North American airports in April with only 54.88% of its flights arriving on time and over 10% delayed by 45 minutes or more or cancelled.

The bottom five North American airports in April were:

  • Philadelphia (PHL) - 68.99%
  • Mexico City (MEX) - 68.62%
  • New York (JFK) - 72.5%
  • New York (LGA) - 62.98%
  • Newark (EWR) - 54.88%

Download the reports on North American airport arrival performance here:
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European Carriers - April 2009 Arrival Numbers
13 European airlines exceeded the 90% on-time performance mark in April led again by Binter Canarias (the Hawaiian Airlines of Europe) with 97.35% of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of published schedules against an average for the group of 83.25%. Other top performers included:

  • Germanwings - 95.19%
  • Tyrolian Airways - 95.04%
  • SAS Norway - 93.79%
  • SAS - 93.38%
  • TUIfly - 92.13%
  • Brit Air - 91.95%
  • LOT - 91.79%
  • Aegean Airlines - 90.91%
  • Eurowings - 90.65%

The bottom five airlines for on-time arrivals including Turkish Airlines, Alitalia, Aeroflot, Air One and Olympic Airlines.

Download the report on European carrier arrival performance here:
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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.

You can expect these reports in the first week of every month. If you'd like to unsubscribe to this list, please use the link at the bottom of this email to do so. There is a "send to a friend" link at the bottom of this message that allows you to forward this message in its entirety to your colleagues.

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