By KARAMJIT KAUR
AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
TRAVELLERS at Changi Airport
should not have too many gripes
when it comes to planes arriving
and departing on time.
A global ranking has named
Changi as the Asia-Pacific’s sec-
ond most punctual in the large-air-
port category, with more than
eight in 10 flights last year landing
and taking off within 15 minutes
of the scheduled times.
Tokyo’s Haneda airport tops
the list, with Sydney’s airport in
third place.
Worldwide, Changi is No. 4,
said aviation industry consultancy
OAG, which tracks the flight
schedules of more than 4,000
airports and over 900 airlines
worldwide. Globally, the top three
in the large-airport category are
Munich, Haneda and Seattle.
The findings of its first punctu-
ality survey were released earlier
this month.
Singapore carriers, though, did
less well, with only Singapore Air-
lines (SIA) taking the last spot in
the top 10 list for Asian carriers.
Japan Airlines, Thai AirAsia
and Air New Zealand took gold,
silver and bronze respectively.
Changi Airport Group spokes-
man Robin Goh said the punctuali-
ty of flights depends very much
on the efficiency of ground activi-
ties, including passenger embarka-
tion, cargo and baggage loading,
and plane maintenance activities.
“This requires clockwork coor-
dination by all partners to ensure
readiness of the aircraft for
on-time departures. Another chal-
lenge is when a flight arrives be-
hind schedule, and ground-han-
dling staff are suddenly required
to quicken their operations to
ensure that the turnaround flight
departs on time,” he said.
Recognising the importance of
close coordination, Changi is
working on an initiative that will
allow the various stakeholders to
share flight operation information
on a real-time basis, so that work
is carried out seamlessly.
Further details will be made
available later, Mr Goh said.
It is a step in the right direc-
tion, industry experts said.
OAG’s Asia-Pacific business
development director, Mr Mark
Clarkson, said: “There are many
factors that can influence punctu-
ality. From the time the plane
arrives to the time it departs
again, it goes through different
checks and processes, from air-
craft cleaning and the loading of
bags and cargo, to catering ser-
vices and refuelling.”
Everything has to happen on
time, he added. An efficient air
traffic management system is also
critical to ensure that planes land
and take off on time, as are weath-
er conditions.
To some extent, how well air-
lines perform is based on the
efficiency of the airports that they
operate at, other experts said.
Busy hub airports in major
cities, for example, have a bigger
challenge when it comes to ensur-
ing punctuality, especially if they
lack the necessary resources and
infrastructure.
A spokesman for SIA said the
airline takes punctuality “very
seriously” and works closely with
ground-handling agents, airports
and the regulatory authorities to
continually improve its standards.
For Changi, which handled a
record number of 53.7 million pas-
sengers last year, maintaining
high standards as air traffic contin-
ues to grow will be challenging,
Mr Goh said. This is why it is vital
to ensure adequate runway and
terminal capacity, he added.
Work has already started on
the expansion of Terminal 1 and
construction of Terminal 4, which
will take the airport’s annual pas-
senger-handling capacity to 85
million a year by 2018, up from 66
million now.
A third runway will also be op-
erational around the early 2020s.
It is the second most punctual airport
in region after Haneda, Tokyo: Survey
Changi scores in
punctuality among
Asia-Pacific airports
ST GRAPHICS
Source: OAG
Top Asian airlines
88.8
88.7
88.3
87.3
86.0
85.5
85.4
84.2
84.1
83.7
Average
on-time rate (%)
Japan Airlines
Thai AirAsia
Air New Zealand
All Nippon Airways
Bangkok Airways
Virgin Australia
Qantas Airways
Korean Air
IndiGo Air
Singapore Airlines
Airline
