In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year saw a challenging operational environment across the world, with many airlines and airports experiencing delays, disruptions and resource challenges. However, despite this climate, a number of airports worldwide excelled, according to the latest Cirium Aviation Analytics report.
Cirium released the list of the top-performing global airports of 2022 in which Bangalore's Kempegwoda International Airport and Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport found second and seventh spots, respectively. As per the report, while Bangalore's Kempegwoda International Airport witnessed on-time departure for 84.08% of 201,897 flights, Delhi's IGI Airport saw 81.84% on-time departure for 411,205 flights.
"During 2022 airlines had difficulty anticipating the sudden recovery in demand. They had been disappointed on several previous occasions throughout the pandemic, when it looked like demand was picking up, only for it to reverse course in the face of new Covid variants," Cirium said in its report, adding that when the recovery finally came in 2022, the aviation industry struggles with understaffing and insufficient capacity, and delays and cancellations became issues.
"In time, however, operations greatly improved as the industry added workers and adjusted capacity. 2023 appears to hold great promise for the aviation industry," the report read.
According to Cirium, the top-performing global airports were:
- Haneda Airport, Tokyo
- Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore, India
- Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah, US
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Michigan, US
- Philadelphia International Airport, Pennsylvania, US
- Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Minnesota, US
- Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, India
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Washington, US
- El Dorado International Airport, Bogota
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport, North Carolina, US
Meanwhile, alongside top-performing global airports, Cirium also published the list of most punctual airlines across the globe. Brazil's Azul Airlines emerged as "the global leader". Delta Airlines, on the other, was honoured with the Cirium Platinum Award for global operational excellence, for the second consecutive year. Japan's StarFlyer was named the world's leading low-cost carrier.
No European airlines or airports appeared in Cirium's report and no UK airline or airport made the grade for its regional ranking of the best performer in Europe.
