Delta Air Lines was the most punctual airline in the world in 2018, according to a new analysis carried out by Flightglobal.

In second place was Qatar Airways and following closely in third was KLM.

86.09 per cent of Delta’s flights were on time — an improvement of 0.19 per cent over 2017. 85.88 per cent of Qatar’s flights arrived on schedule, and KLM had 85.04 per cent land on time.

It is the second year running that Delta has taken the top spot.

Azul and Iberia were the most punctual airlines in the low-cost carrier category. Both had 86.47 per cent of their flights on time.

FlightGlobal also ranked carriers by punctuality across their network — a system of flights flown by a major airline, but also including flights that are marketed by the carrier and are operated by its airline partners.

This went to Qatar, with 85.88 per cent of its flights on time. KLM came in second with 85.59 per cent and ANA in third with 85.25 per cent.

A flight is considered on time if the aircraft arrives at the gate within 14 minutes and 59 seconds, or less than 15  minutes, of its scheduled arrival time.

FlightGlobal’s annual On-Time Performance Service Awards rank airlines based on more than 120,000 flights per day and 600 global sources.

Airlines must meet specific requirements before being considered within an awards category. These include the total annual scheduled passenger flights, the geographical nature of their route network, and the degree to which FlightGlobal can acquire flight status data.

Source: Flightglobal