A cheeky trick used by some airlines is to extend flight times on the schedule and timetable. By this it appears the flights arrive early or at least on time. As the performance depends on many factors it will be difficult to improve it in general. For example: one plane is delayed taking of, the next plane on the taxiway will also be delayed due to no fault of its own. The second plane arrives late at its destination. The ground-handling( cleaning, refueling, cargo, etc...) might at this time already be busy with another aircraft causing further delays for the aircraft to leave again. One by one this ads up to massive delays. With low cost airlines trying to shorten the turnaround time (that is from landing to starting) even further it will become even more a problem.
The best option is to fly early in the morning where planes arrived the previous night and have been parked up.
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This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.