Who Are The World’s Most Punctual Low-Cost Carriers?

For every airline, punctuality is one of the most important metrics that have to be monitored throughout the year, especially if they want to be known as a reliable airline that can be trusted to carry them from point A to point B. As such, the aviation analytics company Cirium has disclosed that the top five most punctual low-cost carriers (LCC) in April 2024 were Iberia Express, Gol, Vueling, Allegiant Air, and Azul, with their on-time arrival percentages ranging from 89.89% to 85.85%. The company pointed out that Iberia Express took over the lead from the South Africa-based Safair, which had dominated the rankings for eight months.

Nevertheless, Cirium detailed that an on-time arrival is considered when the aircraft arrives at its gate on time, with a 15-minute delay window provided for airlines. Meanwhile, low-cost carriers were defined as those that are industry-recognized and/or self-identify as low-cost airlines, with the company considering the top 60% of all LCCs. For a company to be considered for the ranking, it must be within the top 60% for flights, seats, and destinations.

Iberia Express rising through the ranks

Over the past three months, Iberia Express, the subsidiary of Iberia, the de facto flag carrier of Spain that is part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), has experienced a brief dip in its on-time arrival performance, yet has managed to climb up to first place in April.

Photo: Ivan Berrocal I Shutterstock

The report detailed that in February, the Spanish low-cost carrier’s on-time arrival performance was 90.15%, dropping to 84.01% by the following month. Nevertheless, in April, Iberia Express recovered and had an on-time arrival rating of 89.89%, allowing it to climb to first place.

Iberia Express, which has 28 Airbus A320 family aircraft per ch-aviation data, had completed 3,689 flights in April, with an average completion factor of 99.81%. In comparison, Cirium disclosed that it had tracked a total of 110,230 LCC flights during the month, meaning that Iberia Express represented a market share of 3.34% in April.

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Gol holding steady

Cirium pointed out that while Iberia Express dethroned Safair in the rankings, the Brazilian LCC has steadily remained in second place in the on-time arrival rankings within this category. Unlike the Spanish airline, Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (Gol) managed to keep its on-time arrival rating somewhat steady in the past two months.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

In April, its on-time arrival percentage was 88.88%, while in March, it was 88.62%. However, a month prior, the Brazilian carrier’s average on-time arrival rating was 82.43%, representing a significant dip month-on-month (MoM) that impacted its monthly rating.

Still, Gol operated 16,829 flights during the month, with an average completion factor of 99.13%. According to data from Cirium, the Brazilian airline has scheduled 17,119 flights in May, representing 3 million seats and 3.3 billion available seat kilometers (ASK) during the month.

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Vueling improving its performance

Vueling is another Spanish LCC on the list, with the airline also belonging to IAG. Cirium noted that the carrier had improved its on-time arrival performance, allowing it to climb from sixth to third place on the rankings. Vueling finished the month with an on-time arrival performance of 87.18%.

Photo: BearFotos | Shutterstock

In March and February, the percentage of the Spanish airline’s flights that had arrived on time was 87.11% and 89.11%, respectively, which is a familiar story to the other IAG LCC, Iberia Express, which also had a dip in performance in March.

Nevertheless, Vueling operated more flights than Gol, with the Spanish airline’s aircraft taking off on 19,340 itineraries. As such, the airline operated 17.5% of Cirium’s tracked flights within the low-cost category, trailing only one other airline within this market segment.

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Allegiant Air’s monthly improvement

Allegiant Air is the first and only US-based LCC to appear on the list, with the airline massively improving its performance MoM. While in March its flights arrived on time 76.36% of the time, in April, the percentage was 86.17%, allowing the airline to rank fourth.

Photo: Allegiant

In March, the airline’s main hub, Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), suffered extreme weather, which resulted in flight delays from the airport. According to a report by the local KTNV Las Vegas, at least 300 flights were delayed while 55 were canceled on March 2.

While the airline is currently an all-Airbus A320 family operator, it was supposed to welcome its first Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 aircraft, which was supposed to arrive in Q2, will now be delivered with the other six that the airline has planned to welcome in 2024. By Q4 2023, it still expected to receive ten Boeing 737 MAX 8-200s, with the first aircraft supposedly arriving in the first weeks of 2024.

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Azul’s improvement rounding up the top five

Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (Azul), another Brazilian low-cost carrier, had managed to improve its on-time arrivals by almost three points MoM, finishing April with an on-time arrival percentage of 85.83%. In comparison, its nearest competitor, Norwegian, had an average on-time arrival of 85.59%.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Nevertheless, in March, an average of 83.3% of Azul’s flights arrived on time, while a month prior, it was 84.83%. As such, the Brazilian carrier has steadily improved, with the airline operating 27,057 flights during April with its fleet that includes single-aisle and twin-aisle aircraft.

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