The definitive ranking of the world's most reliable airlines has been published, with Aeromexico claiming the top spot for the second consecutive year. The 2025 Cirium On-Time Performance Review highlights a top ten dominated by carriers from the Americas, with only three European airlines making the cut and no UK-based operator securing a place among the global elite.
The Global Punctuality Champions
According to the comprehensive annual study, Aeromexico achieved an impressive on-time performance rate of 90.02%. This marks a significant achievement, as the Mexican carrier is only the second airline to win back-to-back global titles since Cirium began its analysis in 2009. The airline managed this feat while operating a substantial network of 188,859 flights across 23 countries.
It faced stiff competition from Saudi Arabia's Saudia, which secured second place with 86.53% punctuality. Scandinavian airline SAS took third position with a rate of 86.09%. The rest of the prestigious top ten list is as follows:
- 4th: Azul
- 5th: Qatar Airways
- 6th: Iberia
- 7th: LATAM Airlines
- 8th: Avianca
- 9th: Turkish Airlines
- 10th: Delta Air Lines
Regional Leaders and Most Improved
Beyond the global ranking, Cirium also awards regional honours. Delta Air Lines led in North America, Iberia Express topped the European table, Copa Airlines was best in Latin America, Philippine Airlines excelled in Asia-Pacific, and Safair ranked highest in the Middle East and Africa.
In a notable achievement for a UK carrier, Virgin Atlantic received Cirium's new 'Most Improved' award. The airline demonstrated the largest year-on-year operational gain globally, boosting its on-time performance from 74.01% in 2024 to a much stronger 83.45% in 2025. This award recognises carriers that have scaled up operations while making substantial improvements to reliability.
What Defines an On-Time Flight?
The Cirium review is a rigorous analysis, processing data from more than 600 real-time sources, including airlines, airports, and aviation authorities. For a flight to be classified as 'on-time', it must arrive at the gate within 14 minutes and 59 seconds of its scheduled arrival time.
Commenting on the results, Cirium CEO Jeremy Bowen stated: 'Maintaining consistent on-time performance requires sophisticated network planning, operational coordination, and the ability to recover quickly when irregularities occur. These results reflect the operational discipline that defines aviation's top performers.'
The results underscore the intense operational challenge airlines face in maintaining schedule reliability across complex global networks, with the top performers setting a high benchmark for the industry.
