El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) and Ben Gurion Airport were highlighted in the tardiness report published by the Flightstats website for June. Flightstats compiles the takeoff and landing times of dozens of airlines at hundreds of airports throughout the world for more than 1.2 million flights. The report counts a flight as late when it lands 15 minutes or more after the original scheduled time.
The most recent report rated El Al in 36th place of the 44 airlines included in the report. 38% of the company's flights landed late. The average delay according to the report was 54 minutes.
El Al's passengers will confirm that June was a month replete with less than pleasant events, including flight cancellations and delays of many hours attributed by the company to "operational circumstances." These events are reflected in the report. El Al's rating shows that the airline's record in June was worse than in the preceding months. In other words, the company should take steps to improve its rating.
Flights for all the airlines in aggregate were late in 25% of cases, with the average delay being 57 minutes. El Al can take comfort at being in good company: other airlines with even more cause for concern include Portuguese airline TAP, in 44th place with 53% of its flights landing late, and Ethiopian Airlines, with a 41% lateness score. Even Lufthansa had a 39% delayed flights rate in June, while Air India's rate was 44%.
Which airlines were the most punctual? The top two were unsurprisingly Japanese airlines JAL and ANA, with only 13% of flights delayed, closely followed by Qatar Airlines (15%) and its Persian Gulf competitor Emirates Airline. In fifth place was a South American airline due shortly to begin flying from Israel to Brazil - LATAM Airlines.
Being late is not always the fault of the airlines, and figures for airports are therefore also examined in the report. Ben Gurion Airport was rated in 334th place among the 390 airports checked; 36% of the 5,800 flights that took off in June landed late at their destinations, with an average delay of 48.5 minutes. Perhaps of some comfort is the fact that "respectable" airports ranked even lower than Ben Gurion Airport included Warsaw, Zagreb, Zurich, Venice, and Stansted Airport in London. The most punctual airports in June were Samui Airport on the Thai island of Ko Samui and Moscow Airport (despite the World Cup).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 8, 2018
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