In a major blow to India’s national carrier, Air India has been ranked third among the worst airlines across the world. While, Netherlands flag carrier KLM has been adjudged the best international airline in 2016.
This was revealed by aviation insights company FlightStats.
Every year, the aviation insights company FlightStats puts together a list of the international airlines with the best on-time performance records.
According to Jim Hetzel, vice president of aviation and distribution at FlightStats, compiling the list is no small feat.
The only comparable resource is the monthly report (PDF) that the US Department of Transportation puts out on major domestic carriers, relying uniquely on self-reported data from the biggest carriers in the United States; it doesn’t factor in any of those airlines’ international flights.
“We stitch data together from 500 different sources,” said Hetzel, likening the process to creating a giant quilt.
Among those sources are flight-tracking and positional services, airport runway times, radar services, airline records, airport data, and such governing bodies as Eurocontrol and the Federal Aviation Administration.
