DOHA: Qatar Airways is the most punctual airline in the Middle East and Africa, according to a report by travel data company OAG.
The national carrier of Qatar is ranked first for its punctuality by the report that measures On-Time Performance (OTP) for airlines and airports.
With OTP of 82.95 percent, Qatar Airways is on the top of ranking of airlines in Middle East and Africa while Royal Jordanian, the flag carrier airline of Jordan, with OTP of 80.67 percent is in the second place of the ranking.
In the global ranking of ‘Top 20 mainline airlines by OTP’, Qatar Airways has secured 10th place.
The report, which is based on 57 million flight records for last year, has ranked the Latvian national airline airBaltic on top with OTP of 90.01 percent, followed by Hong Kong Airlines which has OTP of 88.83 percent.
OAG defined on-time performance as flights that arrived or departed within 14 minutes and 59 seconds (under 15 minutes) of their scheduled arrival/departure times.
“The Punctuality League is based on 57 million flight records using full-year data from 2017 to create a ranking of the best on-time performance for the world’s largest airlines and airports,” said the report.
Qatar Airways has accomplished this feat at the time when it is expanding its footprint across the world.
The award-winning airline witnessed tremendous growth and network expansion in 2017. One of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, Qatar Airways launched 11 exciting new destinations in 2017.
Qatar Airways also doubled its frequencies to a number of destinations in Eastern Europe, the Nordics and Russia, following a significant increase in passenger demand to the popular destinations of Warsaw, Helsinki, and Moscow, with increases to Prague and Kyiv following just shortly after the launch of the routes themselves. Qatar Airways enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2017, with the airline claiming more global awards than ever before in its 20th year of operations. The airline began its service to Pattaya, Thailand on January 29, making it the first new route launch for the airline in 2018.
The airline will also be adding flights to many more exciting destinations in 2018, including Malaga, Spain; Mykonos, Greece and Cardiff, United Kingdom, to name just a few.
