South Africa’s three largest airports overcame considerable upheaval in the local aviation sector in 2019 to remain in the top tiers of global on-time performance with rankings of second, ninth and tenth in their respective categories, according to Airports Company South Africa.
The annual Punctuality League tables published by OAG, a global travel data firm, rank several hundred airports and airlines operating in all parts of the world.
The OAG Punctuality League is based on 57.7-million flight records using full-year data from 2019 to create a ranking of the best on-time performance for the world’s largest airlines and airports.
Deon Cloete, acting group executive: Airports Management at Airports Company South Africa, said punctuality is a key indicator of operational efficiency.
“The importance of punctuality and efficiency extends well beyond being items on a business performance scorecard. They are the core components of passenger satisfaction and a critical focus for our airports. Ultimately, on-time performance creates predictability which is an essential value-add for passengers,” he said.
With on-time performance of 84.60%%, Cape Town International Airport was second in the medium category for airports with 5-million to 10-million departing passengers per year.
King Shaka International Airport came in at ninth position in the small airports category for airports with 2.5-million to 5-million departing passengers per year with on-time performance of 83.59%.
In the category for large airports, defined as processing 10-million to 20-million departing passengers, O. R. Tambo International Airport reported on-time performance of 83.01% for 10th place out of all airports in that category.
Cloete, said the challenges experienced by the local aviation sector over the past year highlighted the importance of collaboration and flexibility among the dozens of entities and thousands of employees working in an airport environment.
“Typically, only around 10% of people working at an airport are directly employed by the owner of the airport, in this case Airports Company South Africa. The bulk of people working at an airport work for airlines, ground handling companies, security contractors and dozens of airline suppliers,” said Cloete.
“Keeping an airport operating efficiently is therefore very complex, requires extremely tight collaboration and an ability to respond to events as they happen.
“We are pleased that as airport communities we have been able to maintain good levels of on-time performance and we appreciate the daily efforts of every person working at our airports,” he said.
