Air Malta ranked second in a list of airlines with regard to lost luggage per passenger, according to the second quarter report published by the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

According to the report, Turkish Airlines ranked first, mislaying 3.4 bags per 1,000 passengers, Air Malta ranked second with 3.5 bags per 1,000 passengers and Tarom Romanian Airlines came third at 7.5 bags per 1,000 passengers.

The consumers’ report covered member airlines’ punctuality and baggage delivery performance during April and June 2006. A total of 26 AEA member airlines provided punctuality data and 22 contributed baggage figures.

The report stated that the great majority of missing bags are traced and delivered to their owners with a minimum of delay.

British Airways was listed as the worst of the airlines under review, with a total of 16.9 mislaid bags per 1,000 passengers during the three-month period.

Air Malta also ranked third in short and medium haul flight regularity – which is a measure of flights that actually took off – with Icelandair and Tarom Romanian Airlines both ranking first.

TAP Portugal came last in the list of 26 airlines in both on-time arrivals and on-time departures.

Short and medium flight regularity includes operations within Europe, cross-border and domestic, to North Africa and the Middle East. All other services are included in Long Haul.

During the period under survey, Air Malta operated a total of 4,506 flights. The national airline ranked 19 and 21 out of 26 in on-time arrivals and on-time departures respectively.

Luxair ranked first in both on-time arrivals and on-time departures, SN Brussels Airlines ranked second in both categories, while Malev Hungarian Airlines ranked third in on-time arrivals and Tarom Romanian Airlines ranked third in on-time departures.

The airlines participating in the survey carried almost 93 million passengers during the three-month period on 980,000 flights.