A first analysis of the on-time performance in the airline-industry: low-cost versus high-cost flight carriers

This research examines the difference between the on-time performance of low-cost flight carriers and high-cost flight carriers across Europe. Results by means of different analyses show no difference in the on-time performance of low-cost carriers and high-cost carriers after controlling for several important variables. Additional analysis shows that Ryanair, on average, has a worse on-time performance than the other low-cost carriers and high-cost carriers, if we control for several other variables. Moreover, we find that the on-time performance of Ryanair is worse than the on-time performance of KLM. We also find evidence for scheduling decisions, type of airport, seasonal effects and some weather and country effects.