Ranking of the most punctual airlines and airports

0 0 3 minutes read

Ranking of the most punctual airlines and airports

Which airlines and airports will have the most on-time flights in 2025? The year has just passed, but the results are already in.

New data released Friday by aviation analytics firm Cirium provides a report card on the airlines and hubs — large and small — where passengers are least likely to encounter major travel troubles.

This is important information to consider when you start booking flights for 2026.

Aeromexico is the world’s most punctual global airline for the second year in a row, according to Cirium.

More than 90 percent of the Mexico City-based airline’s flights arrive at the gate without incident.

Read more: Spirit Airlines kicks off new year with chaos, and 8 other air travel storylines we’ll be watching in 2026

Fabrizio Gandalf/Getty Images

This is an improvement from Aeromexico’s 2024 on-time performance of 87%, which also ranked first among the world’s major airlines.

Delta once again leads all U.S. airlines in timeliness. One of the most popular vacation airports in the United States, it is rated as one of the best airports in the world for punctuality. A budget airline known for its big yellow planes ranks among North America’s top-performing airlines.

Below is a brief overview of on-time performance results for 2025.

Reward your inbox with the TPG daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers and get breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive offers from TPG experts

The world’s most punctual airline in 2025

To calculate the world’s best-performing airlines, Cirium follows a widely recognized industry standard: the percentage of flights that arrive at their destination within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

Here are the rankings of the world’s three major operators:

airline	punctuality
	90.02%
	86.53%
3. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)	86.09%

Source: Cirium

We should note that Panama City-based Copa Airlines actually has a better on-time performance than Aeromexico, with 90.75% of its 2025 flights arriving at the gate on time. Not coincidentally, its Americas hub has achieved equally impressive results.

However, Copa didn’t fly to enough parts of the world to crack Cirium’s top overall ranking – although it did take the crown in Latin America. More on that later.

Read more: Copa Airlines looks at U.S. loyalty opportunities, ‘fundamentals’ not ‘flashy’ seats and technology

A Copa Air plane in an airline hangar in Panama City. Sean Cudahy/Scoring Expert

You’ll notice a pattern in the global on-time performance rankings: the top three airlines (Mexico, Saudia and SAS) are all members of the SkyTeam alliance. SkyTeam is a global alliance that includes American airline Delta. SAS will join the SkyTeam alliance in 2024.

North America’s most punctual airline

Delta ranked first among U.S. airlines in on-time performance in 2025 — something that has become routine for the Atlanta-based airline in recent years.

80.9% of Delta flights arrive at the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival.

This is actually a slight decrease from the 2024 results. It’s worth noting, however, that airlines across the board faced uncontrollable forced cancellations and massive delays due to the longest government shutdown in history last fall.

Here are the top three results in North America:

airline	punctuality
	81.14%
	79.2%
	78.8%

Source: Cirium

Delta Air Lines leads U.S. airlines in operational performance after winning last summer’s TPG Best Airline report. The report shows the operator specifically leads all competitors in our reliability category.

Yes, Spirit ranks third in North American performance, even though the ultra-low-cost carrier historically hasn’t received many accolades for operational excellence.

While Cirium leaders acknowledged improvements at the Florida-based budget airline, they also pointed to Spirit’s drastic flight cuts and streamlined schedule for 2025. Spirit Airlines is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it cuts routes across its network (and furloughs employees) due to its precarious financial situation.

Read more: The best time to book the cheapest flights

The most punctual airline in the rest of the world

For globe-trotting travelers who are curious how airlines are doing in other parts of the world, here are on-time results for other regions:

In Europe, Iberia Express, Iberia’s regional subsidiary, leads the way, followed by SAS and Austrian Airlines. (Iberia Express is in a similar situation to Copa and does not qualify for the top spot in the overall rankings.)
As mentioned earlier, Copa Air leads all Latin American airlines with an on-time performance of nearly 91% of its flights, better than any other airline in the world. Aeromexico and Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol Airlines followed in second and third place respectively.
Philippine Airlines topped Cirium’s Asia-Pacific performance, while Royal Jordanian topped Middle Eastern airlines.

Cirium also recognized the three airlines that improved the most on-time performance in 2025: Virgin Atlantic, Philippine Airlines and Turkish Airlines.