Flightstat’s monthly ‘Global Airlines Arrival Performance 2016 lists the 40 most punctual airlines in the world. Flightstats is a provider of real-time global flight data and has access to flight punctuality statistics of airports and airlines on a global scale.

SriLankan was ranked 6th most punctual in the world for July 2016, 14th in August, 16th in September, 6th in October and 11th in November. SriLankan is also ranked 4th in both October and November 2016 among member airlines of the oneworld airline alliance, which has for three consecutive years been rated as the most punctual alliance.

Sri Lanka’s national carrier has in the past five months consistently maintained or surpassed the industry benchmark of achieving 85% of both arrivals and departures within 15 minutes of scheduled times, at its hub in Colombo and throughout its global network.

SriLankan was recently crowned the ‘World’s Leading Airline Operating to the Indian Ocean Region in 2016’ at the 23rd Annual World Travel Awards, on the heels of being named ‘Best Full Service Airline in Central and South Asia’ for the second consecutive year at the Future Travel Experience Asia Awards 2016 in Singapore.

SriLankan’s performance is driven by its Punctuality Improvement Committee (PIC) which monitors every flight - including the performance of every department and overseas station - examines reasons for delays and initiates proactive corrective action by implementing best practices. The PIC includes representatives from diverse departments such as Flight Operations, Engineering & Maintenance, Schedules Planning, Airport Service Delivery, Airport Service Support, SriLankan Cargo, SriLankan Catering, Commercial, Security, and Inflight Services. Punctuality also requires an airline to maintain close co-operation with a diverse set of partners across the globe such as airport operators, airport security, immigration and customs. Airlines also have to contend with issues beyond their control such as weather, aircraft damage by birdstrikes, airport congestion, air traffic control issues and airport infrastructure issues.

SriLankan’s success in punctuality is based on the creation of a high level of awareness among its own staff and employees of partner organisations on the importance of punctuality, while at the same time maintaining uncompromising standards on safety and service quality both on the ground and in the air.

On Time Performance is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) in the airline industry and also has a direct impact on the other two KPI’s of Customer Compliments / Complaints and Baggage Handling Reliability.

SriLankan has a global route network covering 101 cities in 47 countries and the oneworld alliance serves over 1,000 destinations in 160 countries.

SriLankan’s CEO Capt. Suren Ratwatte stated, “We are very proud of what we have achieved at the airport particularly in the last few months. The team has come together superbly to achieve benchmarks that the national carrier has not been able to attain previously. It is all part of the active restructuring that the new management team has embarked on. We are now fine tuning plans for the upcoming runway closure from January 2017, which will place a lot of stress on our network.”