By Jessie Knadler

updated 12:32 p.m. ET May 5, 2008

International flights can be long and tedious. But if you’re flying to or from Asia, take some comfort in knowing that you’re likely to get there (and take off) on time. In our tallying of the world’s ten most punctual airports, we discovered that six are based in Asia—with the top two in Tokyo, Japan.

At Japan’s busiest airport, Haneda, more than 93 percent of flights departed within 15 minutes of the scheduled time and 87 percent arrived on time, according to 2007 punctuality data from FlightStats, an Oregon-based company that tracks historical and real-time flight information for airports and airlines around the world. (Within 15 minutes of the scheduled time is regarded as “on-time” by the air travel industry.) At sister airport Narita, which opened in 1978 to take over the bulk of Haneda’s international traffic, 86 percent of carriers took off and 82 percent arrived as scheduled. Factoring in both arrivals and departures, the two Japanese hubs have a 91 percent and 84.2 percent on-time rate, respectively.

In fact, a mere one percent of departures at Haneda were rated “very late,” or within 30 to 44 minutes of the scheduled take-off time. That’s not bad, considering it’s also the fourth busiest airport in the world—behind Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson, Chicago O’Hare and London Heathrow; more than 65 million passengers were processed in 2006, according to Geneva-based industry group Airport Council International (ACI). At the smaller Narita, the “very late” designation was applied to only two percent flights.

Across the South China Sea, Taiwan is home to the world’s third most punctual airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International, where 82 percent of flights took off and 78 percent landed on time. In Australia, Kingsford Smith International in Sydney, the oldest and busiest airport in Australia, saw roughly 80 percent of commercial flights both arrive and depart on schedule.

To compile this list, we considered the 50 busiest airports in the world, or those that transported at least 22 million passengers in 2006, according to the most current data from ACI. We then looked at each airport’s annual arrival and departure statistics, supplied by FlightStats, and factored the average between the two. (In general, airport authorities place more emphasis on departures, which are more indicative of an airport’s ground operations, according to David White, vice president of business development for FlightStats. But since passengers, by and large, pay more attention to timely arrivals, we incorporated both arrivals and departures into our ranking.)

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Why such a strong showing for airports in the Far East? It may be that Asia is home to more new airports than anywhere else—roughly 15 new facilities have opened within the last 18 years. (Compared to only a handful in Europe and the United States). It’s also the second busiest region in terms of global air traffic (behind the Middle East), with an average annual growth rate of nearly six percent between 2007 and 2011, according to projections from the industry trade organization International Air Transport Association (IATA).

New hubs mean improved infrastructure—more runways, taxiways, aprons and terminal facilities, all of which play a role in reducing flight delays, explains ACI senior advisor Paul Behnke. For instance, ten-year-old Hong Kong International (number five on our list) employs 60,000 people and is capable of handling 55 flight operations every hour during peak hours. And newcomer Suvarnabhumi in Thailand has two runways, two taxiways, one of the world’s tallest control towers and a 76-flight-per-hour handling capacity.

Taoyuan International Airport Office Taiwan Taoyuan International airport's sprawling second terminal opened in 2000, enabling TPE to move 22 million passengers in 2006. Factoring in its 78 percent on-time arrivals, Taoyuan is practically tied with Kingsford Smith International in Sydney with an overall on-time performance rate of 80.3 percent.

The flurry of new building also alleviates congestion at other airports. EUROCONTROL (the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation) estimates that without improved air transport infrastructure and expansion, the top 20 European airports will be operating at maximum capacity for eight to ten hours each day. The FAA, meanwhile, has estimated that by 2015, delays in the air transport system will cost the U.S. economy some $22 million.

Still, as much as U.S. passengers may love to scoff their native airports, a total of two American locations made the tail-end of the top ten list. (LAX was barely nudged off the list, making the 11th spot.) The most punctual, and ranked 24th busiest worldwide, is Orlando International. Spread out over 15,000 acres with four runways and a constant crush of Disney-goers, the airport manages an admirable 79.2 percent on-time departures and 78.5 percent on-time arrivals.

Curious which of the world’s busiest airports were the least on time? At New York City’s La Guardia airport, not even 60 percent of commercial flights departed on time last year; the average wait time was 58 minutes. And, only 58 percent of arrivals were considered punctual. The second worst was Dubai International, where more than 10 percent of both arriving and departing commercial flights were tagged “excessively late.” A mere 57 percent of flights departed on time, while 63 percent arrived at the time they were scheduled.

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