Air New Zealand ranked #2 in APAC region with 79.29% on-time arrivals

Cirium's On-Time Performance Review 2025 uses consistent measures across airlines, including On-Time Arrival (arriving within 15 minutes of scheduled gate arrival) and Completion Factor (the percentage of tracked flights not cancelled).

Asia Pacific results: tight race, meaningful differences

In Asia Pacific, Air New Zealand ranked #2 with 79.29% on-time arrivals.

Competitors including Qantas and Virgin Australia also feature in the regional top 10, reflecting how narrow the margins are among leading carriers in a busy market.

Why Air New Zealand's result stands out

Cirium's Asia Pacific commentary notes Air New Zealand delivered a significant improvement despite engine issues that at times grounded aircraft across the A320neo and 787 fleets. Cirium points to proactive schedule management and the use of wet-leased capacity later in the year.

Air New Zealand's domestic jet network stood out, with 81% of services across the country achieving on-time arrival, followed by its regional network at 80.7%.

Air New Zealand General Manager Airports Kate Boyer says the result is encouraging and reflects a large programme of work across the business to consistently improve on-time performance, an ongoing focus area with further improvements planned.

"Getting customers to where they need to be on time, and safely, is the fundamental proposition of any airline to its customers. Air New Zealand has a target for our on-time performance to be in the top five globally. We have more work to do to get to this level, but this result shows we are moving in the right direction."

Singapore Airlines: a strong partner for connection-heavy travel

For travellers connecting into Asia and beyond, Singapore Airlines ranked #4 with 78.58% on-time arrivals and 99.86% completion.

This is particularly relevant for corporate programmes with complex itineraries and onward connections, where a single delay can cascade into missed meetings, rebooking costs and duty of care activity.

What procurement and travel arrangers should do with this data

1. Use both on-time and completion measures in supplier scorecards, because they answer different questions about reliability.
2. Add an airport lens for connection planning. Cirium ranks airports using On-Time Departure (within 15 minutes), which can help inform realistic buffers at key hubs.
3. Keep an eye on system-wide resilience. Cirium reports global flight cancellations decreased by 12% in 2025, signalling improving schedule stability.

At Tandem, we help travel managers turn insights like these into practical programme settings, from route and connection guidelines to supplier reporting and traveller communications. If you would like help fine-tuning your travel programme, please get in touch with your Tandem Account Manager for guidance and support.