Of course, every airline tries to operate with the highest schedule stability possible. And every airline strives to cancel as few flights as possible. However, sometimes airlines have to react to irregularities beyond their area and influence — weather, ATC strike, etc. As a result, even airlines that maintain high schedule stability have to cancel flights occasionally.
Top Airlines Achieve 99.x% Schedule Reliability
Due to the irregularities mentioned above, 100% schedule stability is often unrealistic. Therefore, many carriers aim for reliability values above 99%. And in fact, when looking at results from 2021, many airlines constantly maintain a 99.x% schedule reliability.
3 Airlines That Made the Impossible Reality in September
Therefore, we have been thrilled to see that three European airlines made the impossible come true in September. We analyzed tons of European airlines and found three carriers that didn’t cancel a single flight during September.
Pobeda Airlines
Russia’s Pobeda Airlines is the king of schedule stability. The airline operated almost 8,000 flights in September — and didn’t cancel a single flight. Moreover, compared to the other two airlines, Pobeda operated more than twice as many flights. Therefore, Pobeda showed an exceptional performance.
Airline Background
Pobeda Airlines LCC, commonly known as Pobeda, is a low-cost airline and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier and largest airline. It operates scheduled services to domestic and international destinations mainly from its airline hub of Vnukovo International Airport. (Source Wikipedia)
Aegean Airlines
Greece’s biggest airline, Aegean Airlines, had almost 4,000 flights (3,800) in September. Accordingly, Aegean Airlines operated half the volume Pobeda did. However, Aegean Airlines is the second European airline that didn’t cancel a single flight in August. Again, an impressive result!
Airline Background
Aegean Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Greece, and the largest Greek airline by the total number of passengers carried, by the number of destinations served, and by fleet size. A Star Alliance member since June 2010, it operates scheduled and charter services from Athens and Thessaloniki to other major Greek destinations and several European and Middle Eastern destinations. Its primary hubs are Athens International Airport in Athens, Macedonia International Airport in Thessaloniki, and Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus. (Source: Wikipedia)
Aer Lingus
Ireland’s flag carrier, Aer Lingus, is the third European airline that didn’t cancel a single flight in September. Despite growing traffic and a flight volume of 3,000 monthly flights, Aer Lingus maintained 100% schedule reliability.
Airline Background
Aer Lingus is the flag carrier of Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatized between 2006 and 2015, and it is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Airlines Group (IAG). The airline’s head office is on the grounds of Dublin Airport in Cloghran, County Dublin.
Background Information
Contained Airlines
Our analysis contained the following airlines: Aegean Airlines, Aer Lingus, Aeroflot, Air Arabia, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, easyJet, Emirates, Etihad, Eurowings, Finnair, flyDubai, flynas, Gulf Air, Iberia, KLM, Kuwait Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Oman Air, Pegasus Airlines, Pobeda, Qatar Airways, Ryanair, S7 Airlines, SAS – Scandinavian Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Vueling, Wideroe, Wizz Air.
Definitions
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).
Data Source
The shown data is based on the latest FlightFacts data. FlightFacts is a free-to-use mobile app that lets you discover the operational performance of airlines and airports in real-time. For more information about FlightFacts, click here or visit our download page. FlightsFacts is available for Android and Apple mobiles and is used by more than 10,000 aviation employees and enthusiasts worldwide!
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