South African airline FlySafair has been named the most on-time airline in the Middle East and Africa, with an on-time score that surpasses that of the world’s official number one in the rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Cirium 2025 On-Time Performance Review, FlySafair was named the leading on-time airline in the Middle East and Africa region with an impressive 91.06% of flights arriving on schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this is lower than the 93.82% achieved in 2024, it still places the airline at the top of the global rankings, although not officially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cirium\u2019s rankings are based on more than 25 million data points from over 600 sources, making it one of the most trusted benchmarks of operational performance worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Global Rankings, however, Cirium only considers the top 10% of airlines based on capacity and volume criteria, provided they serve at least three different regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using these metrics, FlySafair did not make the cut for the global ranking, as it is a smaller, largely domestic airline in a smaller regional market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite this, the South African airline still achieved the highest on-time rating among all the airlines considered in the global and regional rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its performance score exceeded the global industry benchmark and outperformed the world\u2019s most punctual global airline, Aeromexico, which recorded an on-time performance score of 90.02%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two other South African airlines, including Airlink and South African Airways, also ranked in the top 25 overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cirium noted that FlySafair has developed a leading position in performance, owing to its precise scheduling and rapid 30-minute turnarounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The airline also heavily utilises real-time data and contingency planning to recover rapidly in the event of disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The airline has had to use those contingencies and systems this past week after a shortage of flight control staff led to delays over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair, the performance award for 2025 is a standout achievement for the group, given the challenges it faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith sustained challenges in air traffic management, fuel supply certainty, and airport infrastructure\u2014including baggage handling systems that sit outside an airline\u2019s direct control\u2014maintaining reliable on-time performance has required extraordinary coordination and discipline,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This result is a credit to the dedication of our teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa’s domestic airline market comprised five operating companies across seven brands. However, the market has since scaled down significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previously, Comair operated British Airways and Kulula; South African Airways operated SAA and Mango; and FlySafair, CemAir, and Airlink each operated under their own brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, the market is served by five airlines: South African Airways (SAA), Lift, FlySafair, CemAir, and Airlink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since launching operations in 2014, FlySafair has consistently ranked among the world\u2019s most punctual airlines, including multiple global awards for on-time performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
FlySafair was also awarded the \u201cBest Airline\u201d award by public vote at the South African Civil Aviation Authority\u2019s 2025 Excellence awards and took home the SkyTrax Award for \u201cBest Low-Cost Airline in Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The table below outlines the top 10 Global Airline Rankings, including the regional scores of the airlines that did not qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South African airline FlySafair has been named the most on-time airline in the Middle East and Africa, with an on-time score that surpasses that of the world’s official number one in the rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":683679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[15416,14616,10020,1675],"class_list":["post-847167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-airlink","tag-cirium","tag-flysafair","tag-saa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847169,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847167\/revisions\/847169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}#<\/th> Airline<\/th> On-Time %<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> –<\/td> FlySafair (MEA)<\/td> 91.09%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Copa Airlines (LATAM)<\/td> 90.75%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Royal Jordanian (MEA)<\/td> 90.73%<\/td><\/tr> 1<\/strong><\/td> Aeromexico<\/strong><\/td> 90.02%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Iberia Express (EUR)<\/td> 88.94%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Gol (LATAM)<\/td> 87.75%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Flyadeal (MEA)<\/td> 86.54%<\/td><\/tr> 2<\/strong><\/td> Saudia<\/strong><\/td> 86.53%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 3<\/strong><\/td> SAS<\/strong><\/td> 86.09%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 4<\/strong><\/td> Azul<\/strong><\/td> 85.18%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Airlink (MEA)<\/td> 84.47%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 5<\/strong><\/td> Qatar Airways<\/strong><\/td> 84.42%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Austrian (EUR)<\/td> 83.74%<\/td><\/tr> 6<\/strong><\/td> Iberia<\/strong><\/td> 83.52%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Virgin Atlantic (EUR)<\/td> 83.45%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Iceland Air (EUR)<\/td> 83.23%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Philippine Airlines (Asia Pacific)<\/td> 83.12%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Oman Air (MEA)<\/td> 83.10%<\/td><\/tr> 7<\/strong><\/td> LATAM Airlines<\/strong><\/td> 82.40%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Sky Airlines (LATAM)<\/td> 82.39%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Vueling (EUR)<\/td> 82.20%<\/td><\/tr> 8<\/strong><\/td> Avianca<\/strong><\/td> 81.73%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 9<\/strong><\/td> Turkish Airlines<\/strong><\/td> 81.41%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> South African Airways (MEA)<\/td> 81.26%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Etihad Airways<\/td> 81.06%<\/td><\/tr> –<\/td> Norwegian (EUR)<\/td> 80.96%<\/td><\/tr> 10<\/strong><\/td> Delta Airlines<\/strong><\/td> 80.90%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"