For many months (and years), Spain’s biggest airlines, Vueling and Iberia, have delivered an exceptional performance when it comes to flight punctuality. In fact, only a few airlines have delivered a similar performance over such a long period (Aeroflot is one of them).
Moreover, in September, Vueling and Iberia have continued delivering the highest on-time performance. At the time of writing (24th September 2021), Vueling has achieved a punctuality level of 95% for the ongoing month. Iberia is only slightly behind with 94%.
Let’s take a look back — Vueling’s and Iberia’s performance from February to July 2021
When looking back to the time from February to July, the exceptional performance of both carriers gets pretty obvious: Both airlines operated at a punctuality level that is 10%-20% above the EMEA or world average.
However, during that period, Iberia achieved slightly better results than Vueling. On average, Spain’s flag carrier achieved an on-time performance of 96.2% from February to July 2021. Vueling, on the other side, reached a punctuality level of 94.4%. Moreover, on a monthly basis, Iberia outperformed Vueling each time. However, to be very precise: This doesn’t mean that Vueling delivers a poor on-time performance. On the contrary, this is a champions league battle of two of Europe’s most punctual airlines.
| Month | Vueling | Iberia | EMEA Avg. | World Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | 93.7% | 95.5% | 73.9% | 77.7% |
| March | 94.6% | 97.2% | 85.7% | 82.5% |
| April | 97.0% | 98.1% | 85.6% | 81.9% |
| May | 95.9% | 98.0% | 85.2% | 80.9% |
| June | 94.6% | 95.1% | 83.6% | 76.8% |
| July | 90.4% | 93.2% | 79.7% | 76.5% |
| Average ’21 | 94.4% | 96.2% | 82.3% | 79.4% |
In August, Vueling surpassed Iberia for the first time in 2021
August marked the first month when Vueling delivered a better on-time performance than Iberia. However, it was a tough match. In the end, Iberia closed the month with 94.1% punctuality. Vueling performed slightly better and achieved a punctuality level of 94.3%.
Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that Vueling operated 4,000 flights more than Iberia in August. Overall, Iberia operated 14,400 flights, whereas Vueling delivered 18,400 flights. Here are more details about Vueling’s and Iberia’s performance in August.
Vueling to lead in September too?
When looking at the latest September results, Vueling has performed slightly better than Iberia so far. Here are the detailed results from 1st to 23rd September.
| Date | Iberia Flights | Iberia Punctuality | Vueling Flights | Vueling Punctuality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. Sep | 472 | 91,1% | 559 | 97,0% |
| 02. Sep | 456 | 99,6% | 565 | 98,1% |
| 03. Sep | 471 | 98,3% | 626 | 98,4% |
| 04. Sep | 444 | 97,3% | 585 | 97,3% |
| 05. Sep | 485 | 97,1% | 626 | 96,8% |
| 06. Sep | 440 | 91,6% | 606 | 94,4% |
| 07. Sep | 429 | 93,5% | 500 | 95,8% |
| 08. Sep | 453 | 92,3% | 513 | 95,5% |
| 09. Sep | 440 | 95,7% | 546 | 95,4% |
| 10. Sep | 460 | 94,1% | 628 | 89,5% |
| 11. Sep | 421 | 95,2% | 567 | 92,2% |
| 12. Sep | 470 | 92,1% | 618 | 93,5% |
| 13. Sep | 435 | 92,0% | 594 | 95,6% |
| 14. Sep | 408 | 92,2% | 470 | 97,9% |
| 15. Sep | 443 | 88,5% | 485 | 93,8% |
| 16. Sep | 449 | 87,1% | 452 | 94,0% |
| 17. Sep | 469 | 94,9% | 551 | 95,3% |
| 18. Sep | 415 | 92,8% | 476 | 88,7% |
| 19. Sep | 481 | 92,7% | 546 | 96,2% |
| 20. Sep | 420 | 93,1% | 504 | 92,3% |
| 21. Sep | 411 | 93,9% | 404 | 97,5% |
| 22. Sep | 434 | 93,3% | 416 | 96,6% |
| 23. Sep | 431 | 93,0% | 462 | 95,9% |
| Average | 445 | 93.5% | 534 | 95.1% |
Vueling with more flights a better on-time performance
From 1st to 23rd September, Vueling has operated 2,000 more flights than Iberia. That’s also pretty much in line with our latest forecast for the month. At the same time, Vueling achieved a 1.6pp higher punctuality level. Currently, Vueling achieved punctuality of 95.1%, whereas Iberia achieved 93.5%.
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.
What’s Your Opinion?
We are always happy to receive your feedback. Leave us a comment or get in touch with the author on social media.
