Eurowings: Europe’s most punctual airline and a top customer satisfaction rating

Eurowings is currently the most punctual point-to-point airline in Europe; with a significant lead over competitors of a similar size, such as Ryanair or EasyJet. In February, Eurowings achieved an on-time rating of over 90 percent – Ryanair, EasyJet and Condor are up to 15 percentage points below that. This is the result of analyses by the flight information portal Flightstats.

The high level of punctuality but also the high reliability rating of 80,000 flights conducted since October with over 99 percent having operated according to schedule – is also reflected in Eurowings’ customer satisfaction rating. Our ‘Net Promoter Score’ (would customers recommend Eurowings to others) has climbed to an all-time high of 55. In the aviation industry, an NPS of 40 is already regarded as excellent.

“This is the reward for the professional dedication and the excellent work done by all Eurowings employees on board and on the ground day in and day out,” says Thorsten Dirks, CEO of Eurowings and Member of the Lufthansa Group Executive Board. “Just a few months after the biggest growth spurt in our history, with 77 additional aircraft and 3,000 new employees, our flight operations are back to the level of quality that our customers can quite rightly expect of us.” But Eurowings will not be resting on its laurels, he adds. “We will continue to work consistently on additional optimizations that will be noticeable for our customers. We expect the same of all other stakeholders in German and European flight traffic – in particular of the air traffic control organizations.”

Eurowings is currently investing 50 million euros in its operations optimization program Scope. The current focus: processes involved in the so-called ‘turnaround’ of a flight. ‘Turnaround’ refers to the time between a plane’s arrival and its next departure, including boarding passengers, refueling the aircraft, and many other aspects. An airline that has optimally coordinated processes in this area can achieve an additional targeted increase in punctuality. Overall, Scope includes an extensive bundle of measures aiming at sustainably improving customer satisfaction by optimizing Eurowings’ operational performance. 

The current pole position in Europe has not come out of nowhere. Since early November, Eurowings has consistently been among the top 3 airlines in Europe in terms of punctuality and reliability. It’s excellent performance can be traced to a number of measures that Eurowings has implemented specifically in the interest of its customers:

• The number of reserve aircrafts has been increased significantly so that aircraft can be exchanged quickly if necessary.
• Aircraft scheduling between the departure waves is more flexible than before: so called ‘Wellenbrecher’ (breakwaters) can jump into the rotation at short notice, for instance if other flights are delayed due to air traffic control bottlenecks. 
• In addition to this, flight and ground times have been systematically extended to provide more buffer in the flight schedule and better absorb delays. 
• Flights within Germany have been capsuled off from the rotations of European flights so that their operations are not impacted by the congested airspace in southern Europe.