Air New Zealand makes gains in on-time performance, ranked second in Asia Pacific for 2025

The airline achieved an on-time arrival rate of 79.29% in 2025 and successfully operated 97.22% of its scheduled services, completing 171,216 flights across its network.* This represents an improvement on 2024, when 77.3% of flights arrived on time. The global average is just over 76%.

Air New Zealand's domestic jet network stood out, with 81% of services across the country achieving on-time arrival, followed by its regional network at 80.7%.

Air New Zealand General Manager Airports Kate Boyer says the result is encouraging and reflects a large programme of work across the business to consistently improve on-time performance, an ongoing focus area with further improvements planned.

"Getting customers to where they need to be on time, and safely, is the fundamental proposition of any airline to its customers. Air New Zealand has a target for our on-time performance to be in the top five globally. We have more work to do to get to this level, but this result shows we are moving in the right direction."

The airline's improving performance follows several pieces of work including the introduction of a new scheduling strategy across its regional network, which came into effect in 2025, and involved rethinking how schedules are built to better reflect the realities of operating at different airports across the country.

Previously, aircraft turn times (how long the aircraft is on the ground before its next flight) were one size fits all, regardless of where an aircraft was landing. Through this review, the airline recognised that turn times can vary significantly depending on the airport, how busy it is, and the specific gates being used.

"For example, at Auckland Airport we know some gates require extra time for aircraft tugs to meet the aircraft, so we have allowed for that in the schedule. By planning around what actually happens on the ground, we are setting ourselves up for stronger, more reliable performance for our customers."

The implementation of this strategy brought about significant improvement in on-time performance at the end of 2025, with 84.5% of the airline's regional flights arriving on time in November, followed by 81.2% in December.

This approach is now being rolled out across Air New Zealand's international and domestic jet network. As part of that work, the airline is also developing its own digital tool for improving schedule timings, designed to assess the specific needs of each port it operates to and recommend changes that support improved on-time performance.

"Alongside the schedule work we've also focused on additional training for our frontline teams, created a new customer assistance role dedicated to providing wheelchair services, invested in equipment and tools to support our ground operations, and embedded a digital communications application across the operation enabling our teams communicate effectively and efficiently," Boyer adds.

"This is a business-wide effort. On-time performance is not something we look at once a year. It is a daily focus. While it is great to have our progress reinforced in this annual report, what matters most to us is delivering for our customers every day."

*On-time arrivals are based on A15 data, which counts a flight as on time if it arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time.