Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the national carrier of the country, was awarded the top position for on-time performance in the ‘Middle East & Africa Major Airlines’ category by FlightStats - a leading publisher of real-time global flight and airport information.

The FlightStats On-time Performance Service (OPS) Awards recognises airlines and airports around the world that deliver the highest percentage of flights to their arrival gates within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.

The MEA major airlines category included 10 carriers that operated just over 1 million flights in 2014 of which Saudia scored 87.76 per cent for delivering flights on-time.

Moreover, the kingdom’s airline was ranked fifth for on-time performance in the ‘Major International Airlines’ category which included 31 of the world’s largest airlines. Saudia scored 87.76 per cent while the leading airline KLM scored 88.66 per cent for on-time performance.

For an airline to be considered within an awards category, it had to meet certain requirements which included total annual scheduled passenger flights, the geographical nature of their route network and the degree to which FlightStats is able to acquire flight status data.

FlightStats then examined flight status and arrival data aggregated from global sources including civil aviation authorities, airlines, airports, and major airline reservation systems to determine the finalists and winners. – TradeArabia News Service