Hello,
I need to fly from Hamburg to Barcelona in early November, on a Thursday. I would prefer to be in Barcelona around 2pm, but can be more flexible about that. My question is: how reliable are Vueling, Eurowings and such carriers? It's not that I am looking into the cheapest possible (i'll have a luggage), but they seem to have the most directs flights from Hamburg. It's really, really important to me to be there that day and relatively on time (before 5pm at the latest).

Any suggestions as to what is my safest bet?
Thank you!

Are you familiar with FlyerTalk, which is an online forum for air travel? I find the folks that post there are very knowledgeable about routes and carriers.

You can also research the route on Sky Scanner which should give historical data on how on-time the specific route, airline, etc. are.

Personally, since you seem to have a very set schedule for this flight, I'd research whichever route/airline is least likely to be canceled and opt for an earlier flight as a precaution.

You are out of luck, I think. Those are the only 2 airlines with direct flights, and don't arrive until 1.45 pm. Which should be ok, but I've never flown them so can't comment on delays or cancellations. I've only used Easyjet within europe for budget carriers and they were fine. I liked them a lot. So I guess you have to do connecting flight or go day before.

None of the EU airlines cancel unless they really have to. The thing is what causes those "have to" cancellations are usually some sort of strike.

Germany to Spain means a strike at either airport, with the airline or worse with air traffic control along your route could lead to a cancelation. Most of that will impact all airlines. If the French controllers are on strike it tends to wreck havoc across Europe

The airlines if they cancel with less than 15 days notice risk paying €300 of compensation. Plus the refunds. They aren't canceling for giggles.

Vueling is part of the Iberia/BA group

Eurowings is Lufthansa

The next point is you could pay more for an Iberia ticket and end up on a Vueling flight.

If you're really worried fly the day before but honestly I wouldn't worry. You're basically taking a flying bus. They just go back and forth

European airlines try really (REALLY) hard to not cancel or delay flights. There is this thing called EU261 and they have to reimburse quite a lot for delays/cancellations.

As Traveler_Nick posted, both Vueling and Eurowings are well known European carriers -- I'm more familiar with Vueling. I agree also with Travel_Nerd - when I have a specific question re air travel I first go to FlyerTalk (same company a Fodors but you have to create a different account)

Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate your insights, they're really helpful.