One in five flights arrives late as new Assaia analysis reveals how small delays between flights escalate – and finds AI can help them operate 36% closer to plan

GERMANY – 13 October 2026: Airlines could unlock an industry opportunity worth up to $44bn annually by reducing the time aircraft spend over schedule on the ground, according to new analysis from aviation technology company Assaia.

Assaia’s 2026 Turnaround Report finds aircraft turnarounds – the time between an aircraft arriving at the gate and departing for its next flight – across North America and Europe took an average of 11.1 minutes longer than planned in Q1 2026; a gap that has persisted across seven consecutive quarters. Using an industry cost of approximately $100 per delay minute and IATA’s estimate of 40 million annual flights, Assaia calculates that closing this gap represents a savings opportunity of up to $44bn a year, equivalent to as much as 90% of the global airline industry’s forecast operating profit for 2026.

Christiaan Hen, CEO, Assaia, says: “The impact of these delays goes far beyond cost. One in five flights is arriving late, while turnaround overruns are using up around 6% of available airport stand capacity. With passenger demand continuing to grow and new airport infrastructure taking years to deliver, there is a real opportunity here for airlines and airports to make better use of the capacity they already have.

“Eleven minutes might not sound significant, but across millions of flights, the impact is huge. AI gives teams real-time visibility of what is happening around an aircraft, helping them identify where time is being lost and act before a few minutes become a much bigger delay.”

Key findings include:

• Aircraft turnarounds ran an average of 11.1 minutes over schedule across North America and Europe
• Turnaround overruns consume around 6% of available airport gate capacity. At a large airport, the gates that are occupied by overrun would cost around $600 million to build.
• AI-monitored turnarounds operated 36% closer to schedule, averaging 4 minutes less than the industry benchmark

Analysis of 750,000 turnarounds found the worst-performing turns start almost identically to the best. For the first 12 minutes, there is little to separate them before small delays across servicing, baggage loading, and final departure preparations begin to accumulate. Once an aircraft misses its departure window, those lost minutes can become significantly longer delays.

Hen adds: “Delays rarely begin with one obvious problem. Small amounts of time are lost across the turnaround and gradually add up, creating knock-on delays that can follow an aircraft throughout the day and impact the wider network. The opportunity is to spot those issues earlier, while teams still have time to respond, rather than waiting until they affect the wider operation.”

To examine whether real-time AI monitoring is associated with better turnaround performance, the report compares approximately 125,000 AI-monitored turnarounds at eight major airports with 1.5 million turnarounds at 20 comparable peer airports. AI-monitored operations recorded a 36% smaller execution gap, averaging 7.3 minutes over schedule compared with 11.4 minutes across the industry benchmark.

Assaia uses AI technology to monitor aircraft turnarounds in real time, giving airport, airline, and ground handling teams visibility of developing delays and alerting them when activities deviate from plan.

The full Assaia 2026 Turnaround Report is available here: https://www.assaia.com/turnaroundreport