SATA was the third-worst airline in terms of punctuality - better only than Canada's Air Inuit and Argentina's Tassil Airlines, with just 47% of flights arriving on time and 1% being cancelled.

TAP was ranked 148th out of the 153 airlines, with 53.8% of flights arriving on time and 1.9% being cancelled.

In the ranking for April of last year TAP was 81st and SATA 128th.

The latest ranking was led by South Korea's T’way Air, with 99.5% of flights arriving on time. The bottom-ranked airline, Air Inuit, saw just 39.2% of arrivals on time.

Among other Portugal-based airlines, Aero VIP had 87.6% of its flights arriving on time and 1.9% cancelled, while Orbest - a unit of Evelop Airlines - had 80% of its flights arrive on time and cancelled none.

On 2 April Portugal's minister of planning and infrastructure, Pedro Marques, said that improved industrial relations at TAP should help the airline stabilise its flight schedules.

On 26 April the company signed a deal that gives pilots a 5% salary increase this year and next, 3% in 2020 and 1% in 2021 and 2022, plus an adjustment for actual inflation.

In practice, that means that this year pilots' salaries will rise 6.4%.

TAP is 50% held by the Portuguese state, with the Atlantic Gateway consortium jointly owned by Portuguese transport magnate Humberto Pedrosa and Brazilian-American investor David Neeleman holding 45%. The remaining shares are held by TAP employees.