Avianca Has the Second Worst On-Time Arrival Rate Among Major Latin American Airlines

During a year in which Avianca sought — and proved unable to find — a strategic investment partner, the airline also failed to keep up with its peers in terms of on-time flights. According to Flightstats, Colombia’s largest carrier ranked sixth out of seven major Latin American airlines in 2016 with a paltry 79.58% on-time arrival rate.

Copa Airlines topped the list by arriving on time 89.01% of the time, while Brazil’s TAM Linhas Aereas (85.07%) and Gol (85.05%) both topped 85% to come in second and third, respectively. Aeromexico (75.00%) was the only major carrier in Latin America to finish behind Avianca, although the Bogotá-based airline did have the highest volume with 266,353 flights.

Copa had less than half that number at 122,802, while Gol of São Paulo nearly matched Avianca with 260,077 flights. (To qualify as a “major airline,” Flightstats requires a minimum of 30,000 scheduled flights and a minimum seat capacity of four million.)

Colombian carriers fared much better in the regional carrier rankings. Copa Airlines Colombia ranked second by landing 90.82% of its 22,719 flights on time successfully. Sky Airline, which is headquartered in Santiago, Chile, was the only better-performing carrier at 92.69%.

LAN Colombia, which operated the second-most number flights among those in the top 10 at 35,930, finished in seventh place with an 84.11% on-time rate.

When it comes to international airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines of the Netherlands was the best performer. It touched down as scheduled 88.53% of the time to beat out second-place Iberia at 88.18%. Delta Airlines was far and away the largest-volume airline to finish among the top 10 international carriers in the study. It managed to get 85.17% of its nearly 1.9 million flights to their destination on time.

Photo credit: Avianca