Anyone who's traveled >Emirates knows exactly how pleasant the experience can be. And apparently, it's one of the most punctual in the world.
A recently released report, conducted by U.S. research firm OAG, looks at airlines' on-time performance (OTP), describing punctuality as flights that arrive or depart within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival or departure times.
"Latin American airline Copa Airlines achieves the top spot with on-time performance of 89.79 percent," the report said.
Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier, ranked No. 19 in the report's "Mainline" category, a first-time entry for the airlines.
The "Mainline" category includes airlines that have ranked among the "top 250 operators globally in terms of Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs) in 2018, and must have operated more than 30,000 scheduled flights."
The report is based on 58 million flight records using data from 2018.
Emirates did not make it to the overall ranking titled "Top 20 airlines by OTP," but made it to a sub-category which is a milestone in and of itself.
Emirates is considered to be the world's largest international airline, with a network that spans 159 destinations in 85 countries. It also operates one of the world's youngest wide-body fleets made up of Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft.
The Dubai-based carrier scored "Airline of the Year" at the 2018 Air Transport Awards.
Twitter users have talked about Emirates' punctuality multiple times in the past
Saudi Arabia' flynas is among the world's most punctual "low cost airlines"
Saudi Arabia's budget airline flynas ranked 16th on the "low cost carriers" subcategory.
Top Middle East Airlines by OTP
Emirates did not snatch the No. 1 spot among Middle East carriers. It was outranked by Qatar Airways, which scored an OTP of 85.17 percent in 2018.
In 2018, Emirates' flights were on schedule 81.44 percent of the time.
Other punctual Middle East carriers include Saudi Arabian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, and flynas.