The 5 Most Punctual Airports in the World

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What are the world’s most punctual airports?

Travelling can take a toll on anyone’s sanity—especially if you’re flying. Long layovers, crazy delays, and cancelled flights can make even the most composed fliers go nuts. Given everything that can go wrong, most jet-setters are happy to simply reach their destination on time. But there might be another way to guarantee smooth travels: Flying through the most punctual airports in the world, according to travel analyst OAG.

The UK-based company gathered data from 58 million flight records in 2018 to create its comprehensive list of the world’s most punctual airports. Since larger airports have more complicated air traffic, OAG ordered the airports by size. (These are the best times to book holiday flights anywhere in the world.)

For the fourth year in a row, the mega-airport with the most on-time performance is Japan’s Tokyo Haneda. The airport, which has over 30 million departing seats, managed to keep 85.62 per cent of its flights arriving or departing on schedule. The top major airport—with 20 to 30 million seats—is Moscow Sheremetyevo, which has an on-time performance of 87 per cent. Meanwhile, Japan’s Osaka Airport was the most punctual large airport (10 to 20 million seats), where 88.22 per cent of flights were on time. (The world’s biggest airport is opening this year—and this is what it looks like.)

The top medium airport (five to 10 million seats) went to Panama City (91.11 per cent). And 92.35 per cent of flights were on schedule at Belarus’ Minsk National Airport, which ranked as the most punctual small airport (with 2.5 to five million seats).

Have you ever flown through any of these airports, and did you find that they were indeed punctual? If they aren’t airports you frequent, don’t worry—that’s not the only way you can guarantee a timely trip!

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