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Airline and Airport On-time Arrival Performance - December '08 and 2008 Year-End Report
January 3, 2009
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In this issue .....
US Carriers - December and 2008 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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US Carriers - The December Numbers and Year End Summary
US Airlines had a very rough time delivering passengers to their destinations on time in December. The peak holiday travel season was nothing less than abysmal and pulled the numbers for the month down below 70% for the first time all year and below the 2007 performance numbers for the first time since March '08.



For details on how Christmas Holiday air travel looked day by day, get the Christmas '08 Air Travel Report Card.

The top five US airlines for on-time performance in December were:

  • Hawaiian - 79.34%
  • PSA - 76.37%
  • Chataqua - 74.84%
  • Virgin America - 74.55%
  • Gulfstream International - 72.36%

US Airways was the top performing major airline with 71.42% of its flights arriving on time. None of the other majors exceeded 70% with American at 68.44%, Southwest at 67.12%, United at 66.65%, Northwest at 65.06%, Delta at 64.88%, and Continental at 63.31%.

The five worst performers in December were:

  • Midwest - 46.41%
  • Horizon - 54.01%
  • Great Lakes - 54.19%
  • Comair - 54.71%
  • Trans States - 55.39%

For 2008 as a whole, the five best airlines were:

  • Hawaiian - 89.32%
  • Frontier - 83.35%
  • Horizon - 82.49%
  • Southwest - 81.24%
  • Mesaba - 79.71%

The five poorest performances for 2008 were delivered by:

  • Midwest - 65.05%
  • Freedom Airlines- 65.19%
  • Colgan Air - 67.91%
  • Air Wisconsin - 68.32%
  • American - 68.58%

Here are links to this month's detailed US airline reports:
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Top 50 World Airports -
December and 2008 Arrival Performance
Asian airports took the top four performance slots in December among the World's 50 busiest airports. Tokyo Haneda (HND) led the pack for the third straight month with 86.39% of its flights arriving on time.

The rest of the top five included:
  • Jakarta Indonesia - 84.37%
  • Seoul Korea - 82.97%
  • Tokyo Narita - 82.76%
  • Amsterdam Schipol - 81.68%

The hardest airports to reach with an on-time flight in December were:

  • Rome FCO - 41.18%
  • Newark EWR - 50.93%
  • Seattle SEA - 54.9%
  • Chicago ORD - 55.13%
  • Toronto, YYZ - 56.55%

For the entire year in 2008, the five airports with the best on-time arrival percentage were:

  • Tokyo HND - 87.39%
  • Singapore SIN - 83.52%
  • Tokyo NRT - 83.12%
  • Seoul ICN - 82.22%
  • Munich MUC - 81.26%

The five worst performing airports were:

  • New York LGA - 61.86%
  • Newark EWR - 61.99%
  • London LHR - 63.49%
  • New York JFK - 64%
  • Rome FCO - 64.63%

Download the reports for the ACI/IATA top 50 World Airports here:
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North American Airports - December and 2008 Summary Numbers
Charlotte, NC (CLT) had the best on-time arrival performance among the top 40 North American Airports in December with 73.88% of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule. Rounding out the top five were:

  • Tampa TPA - 72.87%
  • Dallas DFW - 72.43%
  • Washington National DCA - 72.15%
  • Baltimore BWI - 71.43%

Toronto had the best performance among large Canadian airports at 56.55%.

Newark (EWR) had the worst on-time performance for the second straight month among the 40 busiest North American airports in December with only 50.93% of its flights arriving on time and over 27% delayed by 45 minutes or more.
Others in the bottom five included:

  • Vancouver, BC YVR - 54.8%
  • Seattle SEA - 54.9%
  • Chicago ORD - 55.13%
  • Montreal YUL - 56.46%

For 2008 as a whole, Salt Lake City (SLC) took the honors for on-time arrivals by getting 82.77% of its flights to the gate within 15 minutes of schedule. The rest of the top five included:

  • Phoenix PHX - 81.11%
  • Portland, OR PDX - 80.45%
  • Oakland OAK - 80.4%
  • Cincinnati/Hebron CVG - 80.01%

It should be no surprise for New Yorkers that the five worst airports in North American for on-time performance were:

  • New York LGA - 61.86%
  • Newark EWR - 61.99%
  • New York JFK - 64%
  • Chicago ORD - 67.13%
  • San Francisco SFO - 69.02%

Download the reports on North American airport arrival performance here:
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European Carriers - December and 2008 Summary Numbers
For the second straight month, Binter Canarias was the only major European carrier to exceed the 90% mark for on-time arrivals with 93.61% of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of published schedules against an average for the group of 69.21% in December. Other top performers included:

  • TUIfly (X3) at 89.2%
  • Tyrolean Airways (VO) at 88.12%
  • LOT (LO) at 84.44%
  • bmibaby at 8416%

For 2008 as a whole, the five top European airlines for on-time arrivals were:

  • Binter Canarias - 90.33%
  • SAS Norway - 86.12%
  • LOT Polish Airways - 84.06%
  • TUIfly - 83.5%
  • Air Nostrum - 83.49%

KLM had the best on-time arrival performance among the largest European airlines with 81.87%.

The five poorest performing European airlines for 2008 were:

  • Olympic Airlines - 21.2%
  • Air One - 21.28%
  • Aegean Airlines - 31.76%
  • Meridiana - 33.48%
  • Eastern Airways - 54.8%

Download the reports 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.

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