Forbes Traveler has just launched its list of top ten on-time airports, and it appears that six of the top ten come from Asia, and one city making the top two, so who made the list?

The most punctual airport in the world saw more than 93% of departures leaving within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, and 87% of arrivals landing on time – so who managed to achieve this? It was Tokyo’s busiest airport, Haneda.

Coming in second, was sister airport Narita, saw 86% of departures leaving within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, and 82% of arrivals landing on time.

This sees the two airports with an overall on-time performance of 90% and 84.2% rate respectively.

Third on the list was Taiwan’s Taoyuan International, which managed to achieve an 82% on-time rate.

Sydney’s Kingsford Smith drew fourth on the list with an 80% on-time rate score.

The list was made by compiling data from FlightStats on the 50 busiest airports in the world. Both arrivals and departures figures were considered, because while departure statistics are valued by airports, passengers pay more attention to timely arrivals, said Forbes.

A reason why six of the top ten on-time airports came from Asia may be found in that generally speaking, they have newer airports. 15 new international facilities were opened in the last 18 years.

This means new and improved infrastructure which can facilitate faster actions.

At the bottom of the list, New York City’s La Guardia came out on top with a disastrous 60% on-time rating. Second last was Dubai International, where 10% of all inbound and outbound planes were tagged “excessively late�.

List of on-time airports:

1. Haneda, Tokyo (HND): 90%
2. Narita International, Tokyo (NRT): 84.2%
3. Taiwan Taoyuan International, Taipei (TPE): 80.3%
4. Kingsford Smith International, Sydney (SYD): 80.1%
5. Hong Kong International (HKG): 79.7%
6. Soekarno-Hatta International, Jakarta (CGK): 79.3% (Tie)
7. Suvarnabhumi International, Bangkok (BKK): 79.3% (Tie)
8. Orlando International (MCO): 78.8%
9. Franz Josef Strauss Airport, Munich (MUC): 77.8%
10. George Bush Intercontinental, Houston (IAH): 77%

…
49. Dubai International Airport (DXB): 60%
50. LaGuardia Airport (LGA): 60%

Turkish Airlines became the 20th member of Star Alliance in ceremonies in Istanbul yesterday, culminating a 16-month process that began in December 2006 when the airline signed a protocol agreement to join the grouping.

“With Turkish Airlines we have gained a new member carrier with a strong home market which is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world,” Star CEO Jaan Albrecht said. THY brings 31 unique destinations to the alliance, mainly in Turkey, Central Asia and the Middle East, he said. Including THY, Star members operate 18,000 daily flights serving 965 airports in 162 countries.

“Joining the alliance is an important step for the airline’s future,” THY President and CEO Temel Kotil said. Membership will enable the carrier, which turns 75 this year, to become a much more active player in the global airline industry, he told assembled guests and media. Earlier, he told ATWOnline that THY intends to focus primarily on international connecting traffic, building Istanbul as a hub for east-west as well as north-south traffic.

“We believe long-haul should be connected to short-haul,” Kotil explained, citing traffic flows from China to Africa and down to the Middle East. THY serves three cities in China, 16 in the Middle East and 10 in Africa. It carried 19.7 million passengers last year, up 23.5% over 2006, with a load factor of 73% and expects to carry 23.5 million in 2008 (ATWOnline, Dec. 4, 2007). “The demand is there. All we need is the supply,” he said, adding that THY needs to operate larger aircraft and is considering both the 777 and the A380.

Although it will not ignore the fast-growing domestic market where, he noted, “our share is going down,” Kotil said the airline does not have big ambitions and will concentrate on capturing flow traffic into its international network. Earlier this week he revealed further plans for a low-fare airline unit, Anatolia Jet (ATWOnline, March 31), that will operate domestically at least initially.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide today announced that it would spend almost $3 billion during the next several years to revitalize its Sheraton Hotels & Resorts brand, including renovations, new properties and other hotel initiatives.

The plan calls for upgrades to 100 hotels in the United States, about half of its North American portfolio. The $1.3 billion slated for renovations will involve renovating 50,000 guest rooms and redesigning more than 100 new lobbies. “We are leveraging Starwood’s proven history of building great lifestyle brands to enhance the entire guest experience for the company’s most global, recognized brand,” Sheraton senior vice president Hoyt Harper II said in a statement.

Elements of the new room design include movable desk space, flat-screen televisions and a charging station for guests’ electronics. The bathrooms will be refurbished with new lighting, a freestanding vanity and water-saving plumbing fixtures. Closets will be replaced with wood-paneled wardrobes.

Lobby renovations will include a new communications hub with free wireless Internet access and Internet-enabled computer stations, as well as a centrally located communal table for group work. Sheraton said it will alter lighting and other design elements to create more of a feel of the outdoors.

Starwood also plans to spend $2 billion in new hotel openings over the next few years. The brand currently has 406 hotels in 71 countries, slightly less than half of Starwood’s overall portfolio of about 900 properties.

Heathrow airport’s new Terminal 5 opened for business today with the first flight arriving just before 5am, but what else is there to know about the £4.3bn structure?

• The new terminal covers the area of 50 football pitches. Including its satellites, taxiways and aircraft stands, it is equivalent in size to Hyde Park, London

• The amount of earth shifted during construction of T5 would have filled Wembley stadium one and half times.

• The terminal is designed to handle 35 million people a year at capacity – equivalent to the population of Lincoln - every day of the year.

• 60,000 people were involved in making the new terminal – enough to fill Arsenal’s Emirates football stadium.

• The UK’s biggest single-site dig unearthed 80,000 items including pots, cups, buckets, flints and a hand axe dating back to 3,000BC .

• T5 has 11 miles of baggage conveyor belt, with late-running bags being sent on a separate fast-track conveyor.

• T5’s baggage system can deal with 12,000 bags an hour — roughly double BA’s baggage capacity at T1 and T4.

• The road, rail, underground and drainage tunnels are equivalent in length to a third of the Channel tunnel’s underwater section.

• The T5 public inquiry was the longest in UK history, lasting four years from 1995 - 1999.

• During construction, two rivers were diverted around the T5 site. Fish and other water creatures were moved before the diversion, and the new channels were made habitable for wildlife.