Oman

Oman Air named most punctual airline in MENA

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Oman Air has been named as the Middle East and Africa leader for airline on-time performance for 2022 by Cirium, the global aviation analytics leader.

The Cirium 2022 On-Time Performance Review is the global gold standard for airline and airport performance, and it will be published later this week, containing results for all airline categories, more detail, and analysis.

The past year saw a challenging operational environment across the world, particularly in Europe and North America, with many airlines and airports experiencing delays, disruptions, and resource challenges, while others continued to emerge from Covid restrictions, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Despite this climate, many airlines and airports worldwide excelled.

For the second consecutive year, Delta Airlines was honoured with the Cirium Platinum Award for global operational excellence. This award considers a number of factors including on-time performance, operational complexity, and an airline’s ability to limit the impact of flight disruption to its passengers.

Alongside Delta’s Cirium Platinum Award, Azul Brazilian Airlines was the leader for on-time performance worldwide with the winners in the other global regions being Delta Air Lines in North America, Iberia for Europe, Azul for Latin America, and Thai AirAsia in Asia Pacific.

An on-time flight is defined as a flight that arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled gate arrival while for an airport, it is defined as departing within 15 minutes of its scheduled departure.

Jeremy Bowen, Cirium CEO, said: “Ramping back up operations so quickly after an enforced slowdown is not easy to do and the top-ranked airlines in Cirium’s 2022 On-Time Performance Review deserve their recognition for this well-orchestrated achievement.

“Congratulations to Delta Air Lines for its excellent performance in Cirium’s 2022 On-Time Performance Review, as well as Oman Air for its success in the Middle East and Africa region, getting its passengers to their destinations on time as the sector revived during 2022.”

During 2022 airlines had difficulty anticipating the sudden recovery in demand. They had been disappointed on several previous occasions throughout the pandemic, when it looked like demand was picking up, only for it to reverse course in the face of new Covid variants.

When the recovery finally came this past year, the industry - including airlines, airports, air navigation providers, and other stakeholders — struggled with understaffing and insufficient capacity. Delays and cancellations became an issue.