Category Archives: In the News

Flightstats announces 2011 Airport On-Time Performance Awards

FlightStats, the leader in flight information services announced the winners of the 2011 Airport On-Time Performance Awards (OPS). In its third edition, the award honours airlines and airports for their performance. As airports are (obviously) our thing, we want to focus on them. According to FlightStats, the winning airports are recognized for delivering the highest percentage of departure from the gates less than15 minutes after the published scheduled departure time. So without further ado, here are this year’s winners:

  • Winner – Departure performance among major international airports:
    Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
    Seattle, WA, USSEA achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 86.28%. The average on-time performance was 71.02%% for this category. This is the second year in a row SEA has won the award. “The investments we’ve made improving our facilities and operations continue to pay off,” say’s Mark Reis of Sea-Tac Airport. “Credit goes to the efficiencies built into the airfield, terminal and runway operations as well as the terrific work from the entire team of port employees and our operational partners.”
  • Winner – Departure performance among major North American airports:
    Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
    Salt Lake City, UT, USSLC achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 86.55%. The average on-time performance was 76.67% for this category. Portland International Airport (PDX) was a very close second in achieving an on-time performance of 86.38%.
  • Winner – Departure performance among major European airports:
    Oslo Airport (OSL)
    Gardermoen, NOOSL achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 87.17%. The average on-time performance was 73.42% for this category. This is the second year in a row OSL has won the award.
  • Winner – Departure performance among major Asian airports:
    Haneda Airport (HND)
    Tokyo, JPHND achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 95.05%. The average on-time performance was 55.03% for this category.
  • Winner – Departure performance among regional North American airports:
    Keahole Airport (KOA)
    Kona, HI, USKOA achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 92.57%. The average on-time performance was 80.90% for this category. This is the second year in a row KOA has won the award.
  • Winner – Departure performance among regional European airports:
    Bordeaux Airport (BOD)
    Bordeaux, FRBOD achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 90.13%. The average on-time performance was 78.66% for this category.
  • Winner – Departure performance among regional Asian airports:
    Itami Airport (ITM)
    Osaka, JPITM achieved a 2011 on-time performance record of 95.60%. The average on-time performance was 69.74% for this category.

For the full results, head to the FlightStats Award announcement page.

This week: more winter, more expansion and more bites

This week we have three main stories for you plus a little bonus one to finish off. Two stories are again related to this time of the year and come from the same country versus the other two both focus on airport expansions in the wider sense. Before we lift the curtain though, we want to update you on our Airport News of the Year voting feature. We’ve received quite a few votes this week and so far the “lost cat” and the “wrong airport” stories are neck on neck, where as the “rivalry” story is lagging a bit behind. There’s one week left for you to vote, so make sure you have your say before the time runs out!

Continue reading This week: more winter, more expansion and more bites

This week: snow storms, pilot strikes, a cheetah and airport art

As another busy airport week is ending we have snow, strikes, brains, one exotic animal and new and exciting airport art for you. But first, the most exciting day in the history of airport news must have been Monday when we launched our reader campaign for you to vote for the Airport News of the Year. Make sure you check it out, we’ve secured some awesome prizes for a lucky few!

Continue reading This week: snow storms, pilot strikes, a cheetah and airport art

This week: a fire, a birthday and 247 snakes

Righty-o, here we go! It’s still a very young 2012 yet airport related news have already been pouring in left, right and center. And as so often, there was some good news (JFK), some bad (New Delhi) and some weird (Buenos Aires). Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.

Continue reading This week: a fire, a birthday and 247 snakes

Last news of 2011: Christchurch again, French strikes & free Wi-Fi

Only seven more days remain in 2011 and it’s therefore time for us at LateDeparture to pack up and enjoy a little (well deserved?!) break. But of course, we won’t leave you before we put another, final round of airport news in front of you. Besides that, you should already get excited for coming back to LateDeparture in January as not only will we continue to review airports and bring you weekly airport related news, but also we will be presenting you with the very first Airport News of the Year Award in early January. The best of all this is, that you can vote for the news you liked best and as a result win some awesome prizes! So stay tuned and get ready for a big 2012!

Continue reading Last news of 2011: Christchurch again, French strikes & free Wi-Fi

This week: three news pairs & a redesign

This week we’ve done something different by pairing up the airport news of the week. Before we get into it, we would like to make an announcement of our own: if you’re reading this on LateDeparture,  you might have noticed that we changed our site layout quite dramatically. The old layout has seen its days, so we redesigned the whole thing with the aim to make it a lot more user friendly and give you a better experience. Let us know what you think!

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This week: a cat & mouse game from down-under plus more

Pre-Christmas time is definitely a busy period for everyone and it’s therefore no surprise that airports around the planet stirred up a lot of headlines this week as well. On Tuesday we brought you a piece about the newly proposed Thames Hub in the United Kingdom yet today we have a cat and mouse game from down-under, environmental impacts in Scotland and Beijing as well as two tabloid stories from the United States for you.

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This week: some good, some bad and a baby

On the negative side, this week we found bankruptcy and strikes dominating the global airport news; yet on the positive side, helpful Singaporeans and a new born traveller in the USA made the headlines. Plus we’ve been very busy too as you might have seen with the release of our newest story on Wednesday where we wrote about the hidden “backstage action” of refuelling planes.

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This week: Heathrow angst, Schiphol innovation & the bikini girl

Unexpectedly no Thanksgiving horror stories hit us this week, but we did receive a long number of other stories coming all the way from Thailand and Amsterdam. Angst surrounding the United Kingdom’s largest airport also made it into our round-up this week. And finally we found a story that’s been waiting to be published from Los Angeles. Well, sort of.

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This week: Thanksgiving plans, angry passengers and new technology

Okie dokie, let’s get this week’s news round-up going as we’ve got a lot to get through! Our tour will bring you to Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Moscow and London. It’s obviously been a news week from around the world!

Continue reading This week: Thanksgiving plans, angry passengers and new technology