Air Jamaica says its punctuality is now in excess of 99 per cent, in spite of complaints from passengers of lengthy delays and flight cancellations.

'On time', in the airline industry, refers to a maximum hour's extension of prescribed arrival or departure times, Air Jamaica told The Gleaner.

Several passengers on an Air Jamaica flight, which should have landed at the Norman Manley International Airport from the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York at 5:15 p.m. Sunday, told The Gleaner about a series of delays. The flight eventually landed at the Kingston airport at 4 o'clock Monday morning.

Passengers were told that the original aircraft scheduled to make the flight had been grounded for maintenance.

But Air Jamaica's president, Bruce Nobles, told The Gleaner that the incident was likely an isolated one as the airline had effectively improved its operational performance.

"In December, we completed 99.3 per cent of all of our scheduled flights and several of those cancelled were cross-island where we were able to accommodate passengers a few minutes later," Nobles said.

Winter woes

He said four of those cancelled were due to winter conditions in the United States northeast and another three were cancelled for maintenance.

He added that while the airline might experience delays occasionally, it had been on schedule most times.

"Before I joined the company again last summer, operations were substantially worse than that and so we have made some serious strides," Nobles argued.

"We have been completing well in excess of 99 per cent of our flights and, in fact, more than 99 per cent of our flights have been arriving in less than an hour late," he said.

Has Air Jamaica's punctuality significantly improved over the past year? Email feedback to letters@gleanerjm.com.