South African airline Airlink has been ranked, by Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), as having the best On-Time Performance (OTP) of any of the airlines using its airports last year. State-owned Acsa owns and operates nine airports across the country, including Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International, Cape Town International, and Durban’s King Shaka International.

The apparent discrepancy between the Acsa OTP rankings and those recently released by global aviation database and analytics company OAG, which ranked FlySafair as South Africa’s most punctual (and the world’s second most punctual) airline, was caused by the parameters of the OAG report. These parameters restricted the OAG report to the world’s 250 biggest airlines, in terms of passenger capacity. This excluded airlines operating smaller airliners, with seat capacities of 150 or less each, such as, in South Africa, Airlink and Cem Air.

Acsa reported that, during last year, Airlink had achieved an average OTP performance of 95.52% across all its airports. OTP was defined as aircraft departing and arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled times.

“We know that time is money for Airlink’s customers and our [OTP] is crucial when they rely on us for their business and leisure travel in the region, including those connecting with our flights to key destinations across Southern Africa and with long-haul flights operated by our various partner global carriers,” highlighted Airlink CEO and MD Rodger Foster. “Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement and we maintain a sharp focus on every aspect of our service to enhance our reliability and stay on time.”

This did not apply only to passengers, he assured. “Similarly, our air cargo customers, who typically send high-value but low volume items by air, depend on Airlink to carry their shipments to their markets on time and in pristine condition.”

In addition to having the best average OTP across all Acsa’s airports, Airlink recorded the best OTP at each and every one of its nine airports in 2022. The figures were – Bloemfontein Bram Fischer International Airport, 95.24%; Cape Town International Airport, 95.72%; Durban King Shaka International Airport, 96.24%; East London King Phalo Airport, 96.25%; George Airport, 95.89%; Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport, 96,87%; Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport, 95.2%; Kimberley Airport, 95.34%; and Upington International Airport, 95.08%.