If you're one of those who worries about the possibility that your luggage might not reach your destination then you would do no harm in opting to travel with Air Malta.

The national airline once again placed first among 25 airlines for putting luggage on the same aircraft as their owners, a survey by the Association of European Airlines has shown.

The survey, which covers the period January to March, shows that just 4.1 bags go missing per 1,000 of Air Malta's passengers, in stark contrast to some of the established airlines. This is an improvement over the figure of 4.8 mislaid in the previous quarter.

The airline with the second best track record where luggage loss was concerned was Tarom Romanian Airlines (7.5 bags per 1,000), while 16 out of every 1,000 passengers of British Airways turned up at their destination without their luggage.

Ironically, Lufthansa, one of the world's largest airlines, has the worst track record of the 25 airlines surveyed, with 19.8 going missing per 1,000 passengers.

Baggage irregularities were measured at an average 15.2 missing bags per 1,000 passengers. AEA noted however that the great majority of missing bags (85 per cent) are traced and delivered to their owners within 48 hours.

Where punctuality is concerned, Air Malta does not receive such a glowing report, ranking about midway in the table for arrival and departure times.

Just over three quarters of all Air Malta flights (78.1 per cent) arrive on time, while 80 per cent depart within 15 minutes of the stipulated time. In general, 79.3 per cent of airlines depart within 15 minutes of schedule. In this sector, Malev Hungarian Airlines had the best track record.

The airlines in the AEA survey carried almost 78 million passengers during the three month period on 930,000 flights. Air Malta flew 321,061 passengers during the same period.