China Eastern Airlines ranked first last year in on-time performance among the three domestic airline giants, the General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) told Xinhua on Sunday.
During 2007, 84.32 percent of the flights of China Eastern arrived and left as scheduled, according to the CAAC.
"The staff members of our company have made great efforts to provide a punctual, safe flight experience for our customers," said Cao Jianxiong, general manager of the Shanghai-based airline.
Cao added that the company had set up emergency handling centers at Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports to ease the pressure of flight delays caused by bad weather and other emergencies.
The other top two domestic carriers are Air China and China Southern Airlines.
The CAAC conducted an informal passenger-feedback meeting about the 16 largest domestic carriers on Sunday and China Eastern received the highest rating for last year. The issues that passengers were most concerned about were being kept informed about flight delays and insufficient space between rows of seats on aircraft.
As living standards in China rise, people are paying more attention to having a comfortable flight experience, according to the CAAC.
Official figures showed that the annual flights in China rose from 896,000 in 2003 to 1.62 million in 2007, up more than 15 percent year on year. However, flight delays have long troubled passengers in China.
The new measuring method of on-time flights will come into effect on March 30 to replace the old one, in a bid to improve the accuracy and authenticity of the statistics, said the CAAC.
The new method was designed in light of a research since the end of 2006 and in accordance with suggestions and opinions given by major domestic airlines and air traffic management bureaus nationwide.
The CAAC also announced at a national civil aviation conference in January that it would take various measures to reduce flight delays and improve the airline services this year, including:
-- A two-year block on the expansion or establishment of branches of airlines reported for poor services after delays or overbooking, or luggage losses.
-- The cancellation of services that rank among the bottom 20 on the punctuality lists at Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or other Olympic-related city airports, and those that have a punctuality rate below 50 percent.