Flag carrier Vietnam Airlines was the most punctual airline among Vietnam’s three major airlines in the first 11 months of 2018, according to a report of service quality by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).

The CAAV report monitors the on-time performance (OTP) of Vietnam Airlines, low-cost carrier Vietjet and budget airline Jetstar Pacific, from January to November this year.

Among the three carriers, Vietnam Airlines has the highest OTP rate of 88.8 percent in the 11-month period. It canceled 262 out of 116,192 flights operated during this period.

Vietjet came behind with an OTP rate of 84 percent, canceling 133 out of 108,696 flights, followed by Jetstar, which operated 26,771 on-time flights out of 32,956 services, equivalent to 81 percent. It canceled 165 flights during the Jan-Nov period.

Apart from the three major carriers, the Vietnam Air Services Co. (VASCO), a Vietnam Airlines subsidiary, scored an OTP rate of 96.7 percent. But it is because the carrier only employs three planes on short routes and is hugely supported by its parent company.

As many as 188 out of 12,442 VASCO flights were canceled in the first 11 months of this year.

Overall, the average OTP rate of these Vietnamese airlines reached 86.3 percent in Jan-Nov, higher than that of world’s airline on-time performance -- 75-78 percent in the same period.

Most of the not-on-time performances of the Vietnamese carriers were caused by subjective reasons, according to the CAAV’s Air Transport Department.

In particular, more than 11,500 were canceled in the 11-month period due to long passenger procedures, wrong operation or crew’s mistakes, accounting for 31.3 percent of total late flights.

In the meantime, nearly 4,000 flights were late due to technical errors, including aircraft problems, and planes having undergone unexpected maintenance or missed maintenance.

Other causes of the not-on-time performances are issues associated with equipment and services at airports and flight management.

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