How South Africa’s 3 biggest airports stack up when it comes to flights arriving and departing on time

Aviation analytics company OAG has released its latest report on the airports with the best on-time performance.

Each airport is given a star rating twice yearly based on a 12 months ‘rolling performance – with the latest ranking considering the time period between June 2017 and May 2018.

The star ratings range from one to five stars. The airports with the best on-time performance receive five stars, while those with the poorest performers receive one star.

In the case of airports, ‘on-time’ is defined as arrivals and departures that take place strictly less than 15 minutes after scheduled arrival time – including cancellations.

All three of South Africa’s major airports were included in the rankings, with Durban’s King Shaka International beating out Cape Town International, and Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International.

Despite this, all three airports were awarded a four-star rating – indicating that they are some of the best in the world in ensuring that scheduled flights arrive and depart on time.

Airport name	Annual on-time performance	No of operations	Region	Star rating
King Shaka International Airport	84.8	48 200	Durban	4* star
Cape Town International Airport	84.4	89 272	Cape Town	4* star
OR Tambo International Airport	82.9	198 696	Johannesburg	4* star

Quiet airports

One thing that may speed up or slow down the on-time rankings is the recent push towards ‘quiet’ South African airports.

All three airports recently implemented a policy whereby they would no longer announce passenger boarding calls.

Instead, the only instances where centralised terminal announcements will be made will be for irregular operations such as gate changes, flight time changes, security matters, system failures and customer service anomalies such as lost minors.

Standard operating procedures for most domestic flights require that passengers start boarding at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time.

An Airports Company South Africa spokesperson explained that this change was an important step in its continued effort to improve the customer service experience of passengers at local airports by reducing noise levels.

Read: No more boarding announcements at 6 South African airports