Hainan Airlines Leads Cirium's September Global Airline Ranking

LONDON — Hainan Airlines (HU) led Cirium's global airline on-time performance ranking for September 2026, while Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB) topped the large-airport category with 96.74% of departures on time.

Hainan recorded a 92.71% on-time arrival rate, placing it 3.04 percentage points ahead of Aeromexico (AM) at 89.67%. Singapore Airlines (SQ) ranked third at 87.33%, followed by Korean Air (KE) at 86.01% and Iberia (IB) at 85.62%.

Cirium's August methodology defines punctuality among completed flights: airline rankings use gate arrivals within 15 minutes of schedule, while airports are ranked by gate departures within the same window. The supplied September files do not include a methodology appendix.

WestJet (WS), Cathay Pacific (CX), SAS (SK), Delta Air Lines (DL), and LATAM Airlines (LA) completed the global top ten. Cirium listed 20,641 scheduled flights for Hainan, with 97.87% tracked and a 98.09% completion factor.

WestJet Leads North America

WestJet topped the nine-airline North American table at 85.31%, ahead of Delta at 82.52% and Alaska Airlines (AS) at 80.73%. United Airlines (UA) placed fourth at 78.65%, followed by American Airlines (AA) at 77.11%.

WestJet improved its on-time arrival rate by 2.76 percentage points from August's 82.55%. Its completion factor also rose, from 93.74% to 99.26%. Cirium's August glossary defines that separate measure as the share of tracked flights completed rather than canceled, providing context that the punctuality ranking alone does not capture.

The average on-time arrival rate of the nine published carriers rose to 77.64%, up 5.52 percentage points from August's 72.12%. It remained the lowest of Cirium's five regional airline tables. This is an average of the listed airlines' percentages, not a flight-weighted measure of all North American traffic.

Frontier Airlines (F9) recorded 75.49%, JetBlue (B6) 74.64%, Air Canada (AC) 73.19%, and Southwest Airlines (WN) 71.14%.

Regional Airline Leaders

Hainan also led Asia-Pacific, ahead of Trinity Airways (TW) at 89.03% and Air New Zealand (NZ) at 87.57%. The regional table averaged 87.04%, the highest of the five regional airline groups. Trinity Airways adopted its current name on September 10, 2026, replacing T'way Air.

Austrian Airlines (OS) led Europe at 86.01%, followed by Iberia at 85.62% and SAS at 84.68%. The table averaged 82.66%. Sky Airline (H2) topped Latin America at 91.52%, ahead of Copa Airlines (CM) at 90.45% and Volaris (Y4) at 90.07%; that regional table averaged 85.54%.

Gulf Air (GF) led the combined Middle East and Africa category at 92.90%, followed by Royal Jordanian (RJ) at 92.14% and Safair (FA) at 91.67%. The table averaged 84.20%. Gulf Air's result was higher than Hainan's, but Cirium's August appendix describes separate eligibility criteria for the global and regional categories; the global table is not a ranking of the highest rates across every regional airline.

Harbin Leads Large Airports

In Cirium's September airport report, Harbin's 96.74% on-time departure rate put it 6.20 percentage points ahead of Santiago's Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL) at 90.54%. Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) ranked third at 90.40%, followed by Chennai (MAA) at 90.27% and Hyderabad (HYD) at 89.79%.

Panama City's Tocumen International Airport (PTY) led the medium-airport category at 93.23%. Tijuana (TIJ) ranked second at 89.87%, followed by Guadalajara (GDL) at 89.19%.

El Salvador International Airport (SAL) topped the small-airport table at 93.86%, ahead of Kaohsiung (KHH) at 92.03% and Bahrain (BAH) at 91.21%.

The results cover September 1–30. They are Cirium's proprietary rankings, with airline punctuality and flight completion reported as distinct measures.