Korean Air's on-time flight rate rises
Korean Air headquarters at Gangseo-gu, Seoul / Yonhap
By Lee Suh-yoon
Korean Air has improved its on-time arrival and departure record in the first half of the year compared to 2018, according to recent rankings and published data.
Flightstats, which tracks and compares major airlines' on-time performance every month reported that 80.4 percent of Korean Air's flights arrived less than 15 minutes after the scheduled time in the first half of 2019.
The record puts Korean Air in the 13th place for most punctual airline ― a significant jump from 34th place for the same period last year.
Flightstats tracked the actual gate arrival time, cancelation or diversion of flights each month. In June alone, Korean Air ranked seventh for on-time arrivals.
Departure gate delays were also less common this year, according to the airline. Between January and June, 83.8 percent of Korean Air's 49,166 international flights took off within 15 minutes of the scheduled time ― 11.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year. The on-time departure rate for domestic flights also increased by 7.5 percentage points to 91.2 percent.
Korean Air said the improved on-time rate was due to better scheduling and investment in spare planes and maintenance operations.
“Korean Air put more planes on standby for smoother operations, and coordinated plane connections more realistically,” the company said in a press release.
“In scheduling, we spread out flights as much as possible around the times when the airport is the busiest.”
These effects have almost halved the number of flight delays, it said.
The company also added its move into the new Terminal Two at Incheon International Airport decreased delays from waiting on the tarmac for takeoff clearance from the control tower.