SOUTH African airline Safair has won international awards for its remarkable on-time arrival performance.
Only one other airline examined by global aviation data and analysis company Cirium outperformed Safair in terms of on-time arrivals performance.
Safair was also recognised as the best low-cost carrier in the world in terms of on-time arrivals.
An on-time flight is one that arrives within 15 minutes of the planned gate arrival time. In 2023, the percentage of on-time arrivals was 92,36%.
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In Safair's case, the Cirium investigation revealed an on-time arrivals percentage of 92,36% last year, trailing only the leading airline, Oman Air, which provided a result of 92,53%.
Chief marketing officer at Safair Kirby Gordon said: "On-time performance has always been a cornerstone that we've built the airline on.
“It's been challenging to keep that quality while managing fairly significant growth, but we're proud of the teams for this great achievement,” he said.
He said the Cirium Awards examine hundreds of thousands of flights around the world, and throughout the year, before bestowing awards in several categories.
Safair finished second in the Middle East and Africa for on-time departures, after only Oman Air. However, it was praised as the world's best low-cost carrier in terms of on-time arrivals.
Cirium presented its platinum award to American carrier Delta Air Lines for the third year in a row, citing a demonstration of its commitment to operational performance and minimising passenger disruption.
The on-time performance programme at Cirium evaluates global airline operational performance using extensive and unbiased data derived from over 600 real-time information sources.
There are no top-performing airports in Africa.
The survey also highlighted the world's top-performing airports, none of which were in Africa.
An airport is graded based on how well its infrastructure allows planes to depart on time. Cirium recognised not only FlySafair, but also Cape Town International Airport, which was awarded the world's fifth most on-time small airport.
According to the study, Ecuador's Mariscal Sucre International Airport is the most punctual small airport in the world.
AirHelp recently ranked Cape Town International Airport the third-best airport in the world, based on customer service claims for flight disruptions such as cancellations, delays, and lost luggage.
Muscat International Airport in Oman has been rated the greatest airport in the world by AirHelp, followed by Recife/Guararapes-Gilberto Freyre International Airport in Brazil.
