We’ve analyzed the latest performance of 38 European and Middle East airlines. As a result, we provide the most comprehensive airline performance benchmark. In detail, we looked at the airlines’ performance in terms of flight volume, punctuality, and schedule stability. In case you aren’t familiar with these terms, we provide a quick definition below. Otherwise, you can directly jump to the details of the ranking!
Important: The shown results are based on flights from 1st to 15th September 2021.
Definitions
Let’s quickly define the indicators we discuss in this blog post.
Flight Volume
In our case, we define flight volume as the number of flights the airline will perform in a certain period, September 2021.
Punctuality
Punctuality counts all flights that arrive on time at their destination airport and puts them into relation to the overall operated number of flights. On-time in this context is defined as +15/-15 compared to the scheduled arrival time. We consider an on-time performance above 90% as good (green), from 80%-90% as ok (orange), and below 80% as weak (red).
Flight Schedule Reliability (Reliability)
Schedule reliability counts the number of actually performed flights concerning scheduled flights. In other words, the percentage of flights that an airline didn’t cancel. We consider schedule reliability above 95% as good (green), from 90%-95% as ok (orange), and below 90% as weak (red).
Airline Performance Benchmark — Flight Volume
Unsurprisingly, Ryanair leads the list of busiest airlines by flight volume. For many months now, Ryanair has been EMEA’s biggest airline. Moreover, behind Ryanair, we see a mixed field of low-cost and legacy carriers. With easyJet, Wizz Air, and Vueling, three more low-cost carriers made it to the top 10. On the other side, we have Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Aeroflot, Air France, and KLM as part of the top 10.
However, it is worth mentioning that the gap between Ryanair and “the others” is quite significant. Except for Turkish and easyJet, Ryanair’s flight volume is more than 20,000 flights bigger than other carriers’.
| Rank | Airline | Flight Volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryanair | 34,920 |
| 2 | Turkish Airlines | 20,060 |
| 3 | easyJet | 16,515 |
| 4 | Lufthansa | 12,872 |
| 5 | Aeroflot | 12,709 |
| 6 | Wizz Air | 11,474 |
| 7 | Air France | 9,734 |
| 8 | Vueling | 8,488 |
| 9 | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | 8,277 |
| 10 | Pegasus | 7,707 |
| 11 | British Airways | 7,161 |
| 12 | Qatar Airways | 6,938 |
| 13 | SAS Scandinavian Airlines | 6,905 |
| 14 | Iberia | 6,727 |
| 15 | Saudia | 6,720 |
| 16 | S7 Airlines | 6,422 |
| 17 | Eurowings | 5,646 |
| 18 | Wideroe’s | 5,167 |
| 19 | Emirates | 4,470 |
| 20 | Pobeda | 4,116 |
| 21 | Alitalia | 4,078 |
| 22 | Austrian Airlines | 3,761 |
| 23 | Swiss International Air Lines | 3,645 |
| 24 | LOT Polish Airlines | 3,476 |
| 25 | TAP Air Portugal | 3,307 |
| 26 | Flydubai | 2,275 |
| 27 | Finnair | 2,183 |
| 28 | Brussels Airlines | 2,171 |
| 29 | Air Europa | 2,125 |
| 30 | Flynas | 1,964 |
| 31 | Aegean Airlines | 1,924 |
| 32 | Air Arabia | 1,882 |
| 33 | Etihad | 1,661 |
| 34 | Aer Lingus | 1,496 |
| 35 | Gulf Air | 1,196 |
| 36 | Virgin Atlantic | 797 |
| 37 | Kuwait Airways | 733 |
| 38 | Oman Air | 600 |
Airline Performance Benchmark — Punctuality
When looking at the on-time performance, two results are similar to many of our previous posts. First of all, Aeroflot —once again— leads the list of most punctual airlines. With 95.5% punctual flight, Russia’s flag-carrier continues to deliver extraordinary performance. Besides that, Spain’s airlines continue to play a dominating role at the top. As a result, Vueling, Air Europa, and Iberia, three Spanish airlines, made it to the top 10.
On top of that, carriers from the Middle East delivered a solid performance. With Oman Air, Gulf Air, Emirates, and Saudia, four Middle East carriers are among the top 10.
At the bottom of the list, we can find some carriers with a high flight volume. First of all, it is Lufthansa that seems to disappoint and ranks 37th. However, Pegasus, Ryanair, and Wizz Air are further examples of airlines with high flight volume but low punctuality.
| Rank | Airline | Arrival Punctuality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aeroflot | 96.5% |
| 2 | Aer Lingus | 96.4% |
| 3 | Oman Air | 95.6% |
| 4 | Vueling | 95.4% |
| 5 | Gulf Air | 94.4% |
| 6 | Austrian Airlines | 94.1% |
| 7 | Air Europa | 94.0% |
| 8 | Iberia | 94.0% |
| 9 | Emirates | 93.9% |
| 10 | Saudia | 93.8% |
| 11 | Virgin Atlantic | 93.6% |
| 12 | S7 Airlines | 93.1% |
| 13 | Flynas | 93.0% |
| 14 | Eurowings | 92.9% |
| 15 | Wideroe’s | 92.5% |
| 16 | LOT Polish Airlines | 92.2% |
| 17 | Flydubai | 91.6% |
| 18 | Kuwait Airways | 91.5% |
| 19 | Finnair | 91.5% |
| 20 | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | 90.8% |
| 21 | easyJet | 90.7% |
| 22 | Air France | 89.8% |
| 23 | SAS Scandinavian Airlines | 89.6% |
| 24 | Swiss International Air Lines | 89.3% |
| 25 | Turkish Airlines | 89.3% |
| 26 | Brussels Airlines | 88.9% |
| 27 | British Airways | 88.7% |
| 28 | Ryanair | 88.5% |
| 29 | Qatar Airways | 88.3% |
| 30 | Etihad | 88.3% |
| 31 | Air Arabia | 88.0% |
| 32 | Alitalia | 87.9% |
| 33 | TAP Air Portugal | 87.5% |
| 34 | Wizz Air | 85.9% |
| 35 | Pobeda | 85.8% |
| 36 | Aegean Airlines | 84.7% |
| 37 | Lufthansa | 84.3% |
| 38 | Pegasus | 83.3% |
Airline Performance Benchmark — Schedule Stability
From an overall point of view, the benchmarked airlines deliver a great job in terms of schedule stability. As a result, 27 out of 38 airlines canceled less than 1% of their flights. Moreover, with Pobeda, Aegean Airlines, and Aer Lingus, we have three airlines that didn’t cancel a single flight during the monitored period.
With 8.9% canceled flights, Saudia disappoints massively concerning schedule stability. Virgin Atlantic, Kuwait Airways, and Gulf Air are other examples of airlines that seem to have some stability issues at the moment.
| Rank | Airline | Reliability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pobeda | 100% |
| 2 | Aegean Airlines | 100% |
| 3 | Aer Lingus | 100% |
| 4 | Ryanair | 99.9% |
| 5 | Vueling | 99.9% |
| 6 | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines | 99.9% |
| 7 | Pegasus | 99.9% |
| 8 | Iberia | 99.9% |
| 9 | Finnair | 99.9% |
| 10 | Air Arabia | 99.9% |
| 11 | easyJet | 99.8% |
| 12 | Wizz Air | 99.8% |
| 13 | S7 Airlines | 99.8% |
| 14 | LOT Polish Airlines | 99.8% |
| 15 | TAP Air Portugal | 99.8% |
| 16 | Lufthansa | 99.7% |
| 17 | Aeroflot | 99.7% |
| 18 | Qatar Airways | 99.7% |
| 19 | Austrian Airlines | 99.7% |
| 20 | Brussels Airlines | 99.7% |
| 21 | Air Europa | 99.7% |
| 22 | Turkish Airlines | 99.5% |
| 23 | Eurowings | 99.5% |
| 24 | Emirates | 99.5% |
| 25 | Air France | 99.4% |
| 26 | Swiss International Air Lines | 99.4% |
| 27 | British Airways | 99.3% |
| 28 | Wideroe’s | 98.9% |
| 29 | Oman Air | 98.1% |
| 30 | Etihad | 98.0% |
| 31 | Flydubai | 97.9% |
| 32 | Alitalia | 97.6% |
| 33 | SAS Scandinavian Airlines | 97.3% |
| 34 | Flynas | 95.4% |
| 35 | Gulf Air | 94.2% |
| 36 | Kuwait Airways | 94.1% |
| 37 | Virgin Atlantic | 92.2% |
| 38 | Saudia | 91.1% |
Data Source
The shown ranking and contained data are based on the latest FlightFacts data. FlightFacts is a free-to-use mobile app that lets you discover the operational performance of airlines in real-time. For more information about FlightFacts, click here or visit our download page. FlightsFacts is available for Android and Apple mobiles.
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