Despite numerous complaints about its meager services, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is good at one thing: punctuality.

Luxury travel news portal Forbestraveler.com has announced that the airport is the second most on-time international airport worldwide according to data from FlightStats, an Oregon-based company that tracks flight information for airports and airlines around the world.

The portal ranked Soekarno-Hatta below reigning champion, Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, and above Narita, which came in third.

The data defined an on-time airport as one having the most flights less than 15 minutes late.

The same yardstick is used by the Geneva-based Airports Council International.
The study, which included 50 of the busiest airports in the world, took data from August 1, 2008, to July 31, 2009.

The portal’s report called Soekarno-Hatta this year’s most improved airport on its top ten as it ”jumped from last year’s sixth slot thanks to impressive 84.2 percent on-time arrivals and 89.2 percent on-time departures.”

Arrival and departure flights were 79.3 percent and 86.3 percent on-time, respectively, last year.

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta, 15 December 2009