BUDGET airline Ryanair has been confirmed as the most punctual in Europe and the US.

The Irish operator has a strong presence in the North-East, flying from Newcastle and Teesside Airports.

Ryanair's head of communications, Paul Fitzsimmons, said: "These latest figures released by the US Department of Transport for June 2003 confirm that Ryanair has a far better punctuality performance record than the best of the US airlines, as well as being Europe's number one on-time airline."

Ninety-two per cent of Ryanair's flights arrived within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.