Airline delays by country, December 2023

Name: Airline delays by country, December 2023 (1–31 December 2023)
Creator: Airportia
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

72.9 min average departure delay (early and cancelled flights count as 0), Pakistan

December 2023 (1–31 December 2023) Source: www.airportia.com/statistics/countries/2023-12/

Period: 1–31 December 2023 (UTC). Data calculated on 3 November 2026 at 04:00 UTC. In the average departure delay, early and cancelled flights count as 0. How we calculate this

Top 15 countries by average departure delay

Only countries with at least 3,000 flights in the period (100 a day) are ranked, so a handful of flights cannot top the list. 88 smaller countries were left out. 11 countries with an average delay of exactly 0 were left out too: that almost always means no departure times were reported.

Full ranking: 72 countries

#	Country	Average departure delay	Cancelled	Flights
1	Pakistan	72.9 min	5.5%	4,190
2	Iceland	45.2 min	2.8%	3,523
3	India	36.9 min	0.7%	106,541
4	Mexico	33.6 min	0.9%	48,294
5	Serbia	31.9 min	0.8%	3,557
6	South Korea	31.4 min	0.8%	41,352
6	Hungary	31.4 min	0.3%	11,467
8	United Kingdom	31.1 min	1.2%	85,246
9	Canada	31.0 min	2.7%	77,521
10	Netherlands	30.7 min	6.7%	24,858
11	Hong Kong	30.1 min	0.7%	12,695
12	United Arab Emirates	30.0 min	0.2%	38,683
13	Portugal	29.8 min	1.4%	11,252
14	Finland	29.7 min	0.1%	8,528
15	Germany	29.2 min	6.5%	44,425
16	Argentina	27.8 min	2.8%	11,725
17	Australia	27.4 min	3.7%	56,237
18	United States	26.4 min	0.4%	777,470
18	Ireland	26.4 min	0.3%	79,612
20	France	26.2 min	1.2%	34,860
20	Kuwait	26.2 min	0.5%	5,822
22	Malaysia	26.0 min	1.4%	31,975
23	Poland	25.3 min	0.5%	7,654
24	Latvia	25.0 min	0.2%	3,548
25	Switzerland	24.5 min	1.8%	12,152
26	Philippines	24.4 min	0.3%	26,690
27	Taiwan	24.0 min	0.2%	17,218
28	Vietnam	23.9 min	0.0%	25,469
29	Turkey	23.6 min	0.8%	59,412
30	Norway	23.3 min	1.2%	27,664
31	Panama	23.1 min	0.1%	10,406
32	Thailand	21.9 min	0.0%	30,424
32	Qatar	21.9 min	0.3%	17,026
34	Belgium	21.8 min	1.1%	6,195
35	Italy	21.5 min	2.0%	15,345
35	Bangladesh	21.5 min	0.1%	6,435
37	Saudi Arabia	21.0 min	0.4%	26,665
37	Oman	21.0 min	0.1%	5,520
39	Indonesia	20.4 min	3.0%	60,632
39	Malta	20.4 min	0.3%	12,607
41	China	20.2 min	2.9%	386,046
42	New Zealand	19.9 min	3.2%	16,183
43	Brazil	19.7 min	1.7%	45,181
44	Russia	19.6 min	0.2%	50,827
45	Spain	19.5 min	0.2%	53,018
45	Bahrain	19.5 min	0.0%	3,994
47	Morocco	19.3 min	0.2%	6,684
47	Bahamas	19.3 min	3.1%	3,978
49	Austria	19.2 min	1.1%	14,651
50	Kazakhstan	18.7 min	0.3%	7,262
51	Sweden	18.4 min	1.2%	3,267
52	Nigeria	18.3 min	0.0%	7,670
53	Singapore	18.1 min	0.1%	15,282
54	Chile	17.4 min	0.6%	52,032
54	South Africa	17.4 min	1.0%	9,452
56	Algeria	17.3 min	0.1%	6,712
57	Colombia	17.1 min	0.9%	26,481
58	Japan	16.6 min	1.0%	88,161
59	Egypt	15.3 min	0.3%	11,439
60	Greece	15.1 min	0.4%	11,430
61	Maldives	9.9 min	0.1%	3,135
62	Costa Rica	9.8 min	0.6%	3,267
63	Iran	9.5 min	0.4%	9,093
64	Kenya	9.3 min	0.3%	15,570
65	Curacao	9.1 min	0.7%	4,451
66	Ethiopia	7.4 min	0.0%	12,101
67	Bolivia	5.8 min	0.0%	4,143
68	Nepal	5.5 min	0.1%	7,704
69	Myanmar (Burma)	4.3 min	0.7%	3,828
70	Denmark	3.6 min	0.2%	10,318
71	Tanzania	0.7 min	0.0%	10,324
72	Belize	0.0 min	0.0%	9,136

Cite this

The country with at least 100 flights a day whose airlines had the longest average departure delay in December 2023 was Pakistan: average departure delay 72.9 min (early and cancelled flights count as 0). Source: Airportia, "Airline delays by country, December 2023" (1–31 December 2023), https://www.airportia.com/statistics/countries/2023-12/, retrieved 3 November 2026.

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Free to use, including commercially, under CC BY 4.0 : credit Airportia and link to this page. How to use our data. Press and data questions: contact@airportia.com.

How we calculate this

Which flights count: Every flight in Airportia's schedule data (from the Aviation Edge feed) that was scheduled to depart in the period, counted once: code-share listings of the same flight are left out. Days are UTC calendar days.
Departure delay: The actual departure time (or the latest reported estimate when no actual time came in) minus the scheduled departure time. A flight that left early or on time counts as 0 minutes. A flight with no reported departure time, cancelled flights included, also counts as 0, so where the feed is patchy the average is lower than the real one.
Average departure delay: The mean of those delays over all counted flights in the period. It is not the share of flights more than 15 minutes late (the usual on-time measure), and it is about departures, not arrivals.
Why there is no "most punctual" ranking: Because flights without a reported departure time count as 0 minutes, a low average can mean missing data rather than punctuality, and the stored figures do not say how many flights had a reported time. So we only rank the most delayed, and the delay rankings leave out every airport, airline or country whose average delay is exactly 0, which almost always means that no times were reported.
Cancellations: Flights with the status Cancelled, as a share of the counted flights in the period.
Countries: Flights of the airlines registered in the country, wherever they fly, not flights from the country's airports. Totals include all tracked flights, including cargo.
Period: A month combines three 10-day periods: days 1–10, 11–20 and the last ten days of the month, weighted by departures. In a 31-day month day 21 is not included; in February the second and third periods overlap by a day or two.
Minimum sample: Only countries with at least 3,000 flights in the period (100 a day) are ranked, so a handful of flights cannot top the list. 88 smaller countries were left out. 11 countries with an average delay of exactly 0 were left out too: that almost always means no departure times were reported.

Coverage follows the schedule feed: some regional airports and airlines are missing or report few actual times. These are Airportia's own figures, not official statistics from airports, airlines or regulators.