Global schedule reliability continued to improve in March, reaching one of the highest levels seen in 2026, according to a new Sea‑Intelligence analysis.

Shipping industry schedule reliability increased by 3.9 percentage points M/M to 62.2% in March, making this the joint-highest figure for 2026. On a Y/Y level, schedule reliability was higher by 5.2 percentage points. 

With improving schedule reliability, the average delay for late vessel arrivals also improved, decreasing M/M by -0.14 days to 5.48 days. Despite this, on a Y/Y level, the March 2026 figure was 0.36 days higher.

Hapag-Lloyd is most reliable carrier in March

For March, Sea-Intelligence said Hapag-Lloyd was the most reliable top-13 carrier with schedule reliability of 72.3%, followed by Maersk with 70.8%.

Eight carriers had reliability in the 60-70% range, while two were in the 50-60% range, and Wan Hai was the least reliable carrier with schedule reliability of 46.6%. 

Meanwhile, only two carriers recorded an M/M decline in schedule reliability, while 11 of the 13 carriers recorded a Y/Y improvement.

In February/March 2026, Gemini Cooperation recorded 76.8% schedule reliability across ALL arrivals and 77.6% across TRADE arrivals, followed by MSC at 65.4% for ALL arrivals and 61.6% for TRADE arrivals. 

Premier Alliance recorded 57.2% for ALL arrivals and 56.5% across TRADE arrivals. For the "old" alliances, "ALL arrivals" remain equal to "TRADE arrivals," and Ocean Alliance scored 65.9%.

Traditionally, alliance scores are based on just the arrivals in destination regions, but as that metric was not available for the new alliances in February 2025, we introduced a new measure, based on all arrivals, including the origin region calls on the East/West trades. 

“We continue to present both measures, “All arrivals” which is comparable to the February measure, and “Trade arrivals”, which is comparable to the “old” alliances,” said Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence.