Global container shipping schedule reliability continued to improve in May 2026, reaching its highest level of the year, according to the latest Global Liner Performance (GLP) report from Sea-Intelligence.
As explained, schedule reliability rose by 2.5 percentage points month-on-month to 64.7%, marking the third consecutive monthly improvement since March. Despite the recovery, the figure remained 1.2 percentage points lower than in May 2025.
While more vessels arrived on schedule, delays for late arrivals worsened slightly. The average delay increased by 0.04 days from April and by 0.88 days year-on-year, reaching 5.52 days.
Credit: Sea-Intelligence
Among the world’s 13 largest container carriers, Maersk ranked as the most reliable in May with a schedule reliability of 78.2%, followed by Hapag-Lloyd at 76.0% and MSC at 71.6%.
Furthermore, six carriers recorded reliability between 60% and 70%, while three fell within the 50% to 60% range. Wan Hai remained the least reliable carrier, with a schedule reliability of 38.0%.
Nine of the top 13 carriers improved their schedule reliability compared with April, while eight posted year-on-year gains.
Among carrier alliances, the Gemini Cooperation continued to outperform its peers, achieving 89.5% schedule reliability across all port calls and 91.4% across trade arrivals during April and May. MSC followed with 79.5% reliability across all arrivals and 79.7% for trade arrivals.
The Premier Alliance recorded 53.4% schedule reliability across all arrivals and 54.0% for trade arrivals. Among the legacy alliances, Ocean Alliance posted 69.7% schedule reliability.