Cirium, a company that tracks over five million flights a year, has released its annual rankings of the world’s top-performing airlines for 2024.

It was followed by Saudia at 86.35 per cent, Delta Air Lines at 83.46 per cent, Latam at 82.89 per cent and Qatar Airways at 82.83 per cent rounding out the top five.

Cirium defines on time as landing within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.

The top three airlines for arrival time were also the least likely to cancel flights.

And while it’s a diverse list, Australia’s main carriers failed to make an appearance among the top performers.

How reliable were Australia’s major airlines?

Larger airlines have also struggled with flight cancellations and reliability.

Cirium’s 2024 On-Time Review found that Qantas was the most reliable of Australia’s major carriers. Credit: SBS

According to the data, Qantas, its subsidiary Jetstar and Virgin Australia respectively recorded on-time arrival rates of 73.85 per cent, 73.39 per cent and 72.70 per cent.

However, Qantas was ranked in the top 10 most reliable airlines in the Asia Pacific region, lagging behind Japan Airlines at 80.90 per cent and Air New Zealand at 77.58 per cent.

For Qantas, it was 68 per cent of its flights, while Virgin Australia flights arrived as scheduled 62.7 per cent of the time.