Over 80% of flights depart on time from OR Tambo
FlySafair proves it's the most reliable airline if you want to fly on time.
Over 80 per cent of flights departing from OR Tambo International Airport are on time, putting it in 10th place on the global list for on-time performance in the category for large airports.
Large airports process 10 million to 20 million departing passengers and OR Tambo reported on-time performance of 83.01 per cent for 10th place out of all airports in that category.
This is according to the annual punctuality league tables published by OAG, a global travel data firm, which rank several hundred airports and airlines operating in all parts of the world.
The OAG punctuality league is based on 57.7 million flight records using full-year data from 2019 to create a ranking of the best on-time performance for the world’s largest airlines and airports.
Two other South African airports also made it into the top 10.
With on-time performance of 92.5 per cent, Cape Town International Airport was second in the medium category for airports with 5 million to 10 million departing passengers a year.
King Shaka International Airport came in at ninth position in the small airports category for airports with 2.5 million to 5 million departing passengers a year with on-time performance of 83.59 per cent.
Deon Cloete, acting group executive: airports management at Airports Company South Africa, says punctuality is a key indicator of operational efficiency.
“The importance of punctuality and efficiency extends well beyond being items on a business performance scorecard. “They are the core components of passenger satisfaction and a critical focus for our airports. Ultimately, on-time performance creates predictability which is an essential value-add for passengers,” says Cloete.
Cloete says the challenges experienced by the local aviation sector over the past year highlighted the importance of collaboration and flexibility among the dozens of entities and thousands of employees working in an airport environment.
“Typically, only around 10 per cent of people working at an airport are directly employed by the owner of the airport, in this case Airports Company South Africa. The bulk of people working at an airport work for airlines, ground handling companies, security contractors and dozens of airline suppliers,” says Cloete.
“Keeping an airport operating efficiently is therefore very complex, requires extremely tight collaboration and an ability to respond to events as they happen.
“We are pleased that as airport communities we have been able to maintain good levels of on-time performance and we appreciate the daily efforts of every person working at our airports,” he says.
Cloete also highlighted the on-time performance of FlySafair, a significant customer of Airports Company South Africa, which produced on-time performance of 94.4 per cent.
This was the top airline on-time performance in the Middle East and Africa. Globally, only Garuda Airlines of Indonesia scored higher (95.01 per cent), although in a different size category.
“To score the second-highest on-time performance out of all airlines around the world is a wonderful achievement and we extend our congratulations to the FlySafair team,” says Cloete.
