Bristol Airport has lost its title as the world’s most punctual small airport but has retained its number one ranking in the UK in a league table measuring punctuality of flights across the globe.
The airport, which last week announced it had handled a record 6.76m passengers in 2015, had an on-time performance rating of 88.64% in the annual report by leading global aviation intelligence provider OAG. It came sixth best in Europe.
The UK’s ninth busiest airport, Bristol had set the pace the previous year with a 94.6% rating, earning it top slot among the world’s small airports – those handling fewer than 10m passengers a year. 
Competition in this category was fiercer last year as OAG widened its coverage and a number of airports improved their performance while Bristol’s slipped. The top spot went to Osaka in Japan with a rating of 93.85%, while Brussels South Charleroi and Panama City came second and third.
OAG’s rankings last year were based on 50m flight records across 900 airlines and 4,000 airports worldwide – more than the previous year – and were calculated on the proportion of flights arriving and departing within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
Bristol Airport chief executive officer Robert Sinclair said: “We are delighted that Bristol Airport has been rated the UK’s most punctual airport for the second year running, and one of the 10 best airports in the world in terms of on-time performance.
“In our busy modern world where time is precious, knowing that – nine times out of 10 – your flight will operate on time is important. Of course, delays do still occur, but with uncongested airspace providing flexibility in the event of any disruption, we are in a strong position to keep inconvenience to our passengers to a minimum.
“This resilience is another reason increasing numbers of passengers from the South West and Wales are choosing to fly from Bristol.”
OAG senior analyst John Grant added: “Huge congratulations to Bristol Airport for achieving the ‘Best UK Airport’ in OAG’s Punctuality League 2015. It’s a great result for the regional airport.”
Copenhagen was the world’s most punctual medium-sized airport and Tokyo Haneda the best-performing large airport. I the UK table London City was second behind Bristol, with Birmingham third and Edinburgh fourth.
Bristol Airport, owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, operates flights to 117 destinations across 30 countries, including 17 capital cities.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, this week launched its new service from the Bulgarian capital Sofia to Bristol.
The twice-weekly service will operate on Mondays and Thursdays. The Budapest-based airline launched services to Katowice in Poland and Kosice in Slovakia from Bristol last year.
