Japan's airlines, Haneda slide in on-time performance ranking

All Nippon Airways and Tokyo's Haneda Airport fell from the top spots in global rankings for airline and airport on-time performance (OTP) as players in India and the Middle East improved operations. Major Japanese carriers ANA and Japan Airlines dropped to seventh and eighth in the 2023 ranking by Cirium, an aviation data and analytics company, with OTP of 82.75% and 82.58%, respectively. They held the top two places the previous year, led by ANA. Haneda Airport declined to 10th from No. 1 in 2022, with OTP of 80.51%. Japan's busiest airport is under scrutiny following a deadly crash between a Japan Airlines jet and a coast guard aircraft on Jan. 2 that killed five people. Cirium ranks airlines by on-time arrivals, which requires a passenger flight to reach the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. Similarly, airports are ranked by on-time departures, which qualify when a flight leaves the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time. Japanese airlines traditionally top Cirium's OTP rankings, recording the best performance six times among the 11 rankings published between 2011 and 2022. Avianca Airlines of Colombia led global carriers in 2023 with OTP of 85.73%. Among Asian players, Qatar Airways rated third and Saudia, state-owned carrier from Saudi Arabia, ranked ninth. Qualifying airlines in the global category need to be in the top 10% of all passenger airlines by capacity and the breadth of their network, as well as serve at least three world regions with daily flights. Japanese airlines blamed unprecedented weather conditions and congestion at Haneda for decreased OTP last year. "We recognize that this year [2023] Typhoon No. 6 (Khanun) and Typhoon No. 7 (Lan) had a longstanding impact on our operations, as well as prolonged lightning causing ground work stoppages at various airports frequently at a level unseen in the past years," an ANA spokesperson told Nikkei Asia in an email. The two typhoons hit the country in late July and August, respectively. Cirium's monthly reports show that on-time performance for both ANA and JAL dropped to about 71% in August, a peak month for typhoons. Apart from the weather, the JAL spokesperson also attributed the low rate to the "high passenger load due to summer vacation and the Obon holiday" in Japan. Obon is a peak travel season in Japan around mid-August.<br/>