RJ Among Top 5 Middle Eastern Airlines in Punctuality in 2018

Royal Jordanian ranked fourth in terms of punctuality among Middle Eastern airlines last year, with a 77.13% on-time performance rate, according to OAG's Punctuality League study, released last week.

The Punctuality League report took into consideration 58 million flight records using full-year data from 2018 to rank the best on-time performance (OTP) of the world’s largest airlines and airports.

RJ came in after Saudi Arabian Airlines (81.12%), which ranked third in this category; Qatar Airways obtained the 1^st place (85.17%) and Emirates came in second (81.44%).

The airlines that qualified for inclusion in the Punctuality League have flight status data for at least 80% of all scheduled flights operated. Also OAG gauges on-time performance of flights that arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival/departure times.

RJ’s President/CEO Stefan Pichler said: “This is not the first time that we achieve a high score in an important factor 'the on-time performance'. I wish to thank our operations team for their outstanding performance. We are keen to keep our commitment to our passengers who look forward to having safe and punctual flights while enjoying considerable ground and air services. Congratulations to RJ!” 

Six regional categories rank the best airlines, mainline and LCC, which are operating in groupings of IATA-defined global regions: Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East (where RJ ranked fourth), Latin America and North America.

In each category, airlines must be ranked among the Top 250 operators globally in terms of available seat kilometers (ASKs) and must have operated a minimum of 18,000 scheduled flights in a year to qualify for inclusion.

Copa Airlines, the flag carrier of Panama, ranked the first on global level with an 89.79% on-time performance.

According to oag.com, OAG is the leading global provider of digital flight information. It provides accurate, timely and actionable information and applications across the travel sector to the world. Headquartered in the UK, OAG has global operations in the US, Singapore, Japan and China.