Two Hong Kong-based airlines are ranked among the most punctual carriers for 2023, according to an on-time performance review by aviation analytics company Cirium. The 15th edition of the report found that Cathay Pacific is the 10th most punctual airline in the Asia-Pacific region, and its subsidy carrier HK Express has the world’s third-best on-time performance in the low-cost airline category.
| RANKING | AIRLINE | ON-TIME ARRIVAL |
| 1 | All Nippon Airways | 82.75% |
| 2 | Japan Airlines | 82.58% |
| 3 | Thai AirAsia | 82.52% |
| 4 | IndiGo | 82.12% |
| 5 | Air New Zealand | 79.68% |
| 6 | Garuda Indonesia | 78.67% |
| 7 | Singapore Airlines | 78.57% |
| 8 | Philippine Airlines | 77.46% |
| 9 | Vietnam Airlines | 77.46% |
| 10 | Cathay Pacific | 76.32% |
Cirium defines an on-time flight as “a flight that arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled gate arrival”. Cathay showed a 76.32% on-time performance rate on a total of 73,578 flights, while HK Express had 85.23% punctual arrivals on its 23,761 tracked flights. Colombian flag carrier avianca emerged as the global leader in punctuality with 85.73% of its 213,039 flights arriving on time, and Japan’s All Nippon Airways led the way in the Asia Pacific with 82.75% of its 302,279 flights showing on-time arrivals.
Cirium uses information collected from more than 600 sources of real-time flight information to compile its annual punctuality report, which includes data from airlines, airports, global distribution systems, positional data, civil aviation authorities, air navigation service providers, proprietary data partnerships, and the internet. In addition, the analytics company has an independent board of advisors comprising industry experts to review and back up the data.
| RANKING | AIRLINE | ON-TIME ARRIVAL |
| 1 | Safair | 92.36% |
| 2 | Azul Airlines | 85.51% |
| 3 | HK Express | 85.23% |
| 4 | Jetstar Japan | 84.60% |
| 5 | Iberia Express | 83.58% |
Earlier this year, Cathay Pacific regained a place among Skytrax’s world’s top 10 airlines for 2023 by bagging the No. 8 spot among a total of 325 carriers. The Hong Kong airline was awarded the World’s Best Inflight Entertainment award, and ranked among the top 10 lists for World’s Best Cabin Staff (No. 7) and World’s Cleanest Airlines (No. 7) in 2023.
In addition, Hong Kong International Airport was adjudged Asia’s Leading Airport for 2023 at the 30th World Travel Awards and two of Hong Kong’s airline lounges also took home awards: Cathay Pacific’s ‘The Wing, First’ was crowned Asia’s Leading Airline Lounge — First Class, while Plaza Premium First was deemed the region’s Leading Airport Lounge for 2023.
Header image credits: Hong Kong Tourism Board
