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Air New Zealand reports year-on-year improvement in punctuality in September
October 19th 2026
Air New Zealand (Air NZ) said 87.3% of its flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule in September, representing an improvement of 11.8 percentage points from 75.5% on-time performance in the same month last year. Read More » The rate of on-time arrivals in September was also up from 85.3% in August. The Star Alliance member said the figures represented the third best among Asia-Pacific airlines, based on Cirium rankings. "There isn’t one silver bullet for punctuality - it’s about getting lots of small things right, from having the aircraft ready, bags being loaded, crew being in position and customers boarding at the right time," Air NZ chief operations officer, Kate Boyer, said. "Saving a minute or two at each stage makes a difference." Boyer cited a recent change to Air NZ’s boarding process where gate staff prepare passengers so boarding can commence once the aircraft is cleared. A trial of this process achieved a 45% reduction in delays caused by extended boarding on international flights from Auckland and by 25% on domestic flights from Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. The "pre-staging" boarding process has been rolled out across all the airline’s departures at N.Z. airports since October 1.
