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A few minutes at the boarding gate might not sound like much, but across thousands of flights, finding and saving those minutes is helping Air New Zealand build a more punctual and reliable airline for our customers.
In September, 87.3 percent of Air New Zealand flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, up from 85.3 percent in August and 75.5 percent for the same time last year. The global average for airline on-time performance was 77.7% percent in September 2026.
The result also placed Air New Zealand third among Asia Pacific airlines for on-time performance in aviation analytics company Cirium’s rankings for September.
The airline operated 13,072 flights during the month, with regional services delivering the strongest on time performance at 90.3 percent. Total cancellations fell to 1.4 percent, down from 2.5 percent in August and 3.3 percent a year ago.
Air New Zealand chief operations Officer, Kate Boyer, says the September result shows the airline’s increased focus on the hundreds of smaller steps that determine whether a flight gets away on time.
“Customers count on us to get them where they need to go. Our airport and cabin teams make that possible by working together to get each flight ready to depart on time.
“That means being disciplined and focusing on the details. 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. Saving a minute or two at each stage makes a difference.”
One example is a deceptively simple change to boarding. Earlier this year, Air New Zealand trialled a process called pre-staging general boarding, where airport and cabin crew teams work together to have the gate and customers ready so general boarding can begin as soon as the aircraft is cleared, making better use of the time available before departure.
On international flights from Auckland, the trial saw extended boarding delays reduce by around 45 percent and general boarding begin just under four minutes earlier.
Air New Zealand then tested the same approach on domestic jet services from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. While domestic flights generally have a shorter boarding process, the trial still saw boarding-related delays reduce by around 25 percent.
Following the success of the trials, from October 1 pre-staging has been an approved process across all Air New Zealand departures from New Zealand airports.
“The biggest learning has been about what we can achieve when our airport and cabin crew teams have a shared understanding of what excellence looks like and work together to get flights ready earlier,” Kate says.
“Every minute matters when a delay to one flight can have a knock-on effect across the network. That’s the kind of precision and discipline that sits behind a strong operation. We need to maintain this focus on finding opportunities to improve punctuality and reliability for our customers, particularly as we head into the busy summer period.”
“87.3 percent is a strong result, but our focus is the other 12.7 percent. That’s what keeps us looking for the next minute we can save.” says Kate.
