The Association of European Airlines has issued a consumer report, covering members’ punctuality and baggage delivery performance for January-March 2006, with Air Malta coming tops for baggage handling and second for flight regularity.

Twenty-seven AEA member airlines provided punctuality data, and 26 contributed baggage figures.

Air Malta topped the list for baggage handling once again with a ratio of 4.1 bags lost per 1,000 passengers. Romanian and Hungarian carriers Tarom and Malev came next with ratios of 7.5 and 8.2 respectively.

Average baggage irregularities were measured at 15.2 missing bags per 1,000 passengers, up very slightly from 14.7 in Q1 2005. AEA noted that the great majority of missing bags are traced and delivered to their owners with a minimum of delay.

97.7 per cent of short to medium-haul flights operated as planned and 79.3 per cent departed within 15 minutes of schedule. The delay rate was slightly worse than in the first quarter of 2005, when 80.8 per cent of flights operated punctually.

In the medium to short-haul flight regularity, Air Malta came in second after Tarom and Icelandair who recorded a perfect 100 per cent score. Air Malta came in closely behind with a 99.9 per cent record, but did not feature in the long-haul sector.

With regard to punctuality, Air Malta did well, but not as well as in the other two categories. Air Malta placed above average in punctuality for flight arrivals (12th) and departures (15th) with 78.1 per cent arriving on time and 80.3 departing on time compared to the association’s averages of 76.9 per cent and 79.3 per cent per cent respectively.

For long-haul services, regularity was 99.5 per cent and punctuality 68.7 per cent, again a slight deterioration compared with 70.8 per cent in the same period last year.

The statistics represent the visible tip of an operational iceberg which is the business of the network carriers.

The airlines in the AEA survey carried almost 78 million passengers during the three-month period on 930,000 flights. Many of those flights were operated by aircraft newly-arrived from other services, with a tight turnaround time. Many of the passengers were connecting between flights, out of sight of their baggage, which was transiting through an unseen and complex airport infrastructure.