The U.S. Department of Transportation has released its August Air Travel Consumer Report. This includes information on airline delays, cancellations, mishandled bags and other operational details for June and for the first six months of 2025.
With private data from Cirium we know more recent on-time performance but this digs into how airlines do at each airport, and by specific time of day.
Looking at official data, we see that in June the best-performing airlines for on-time arrivals were:
- Hawaiian
- Spirit
- Delta
- Alaska
- Southwest, United (tie)
- JetBlue
- Allegiant
- American
- Frontier
Hawaiian benefits from usually very mile weather in the islands. American has had an awful summer. Things are bad when your operations are worse than JetBlue’s. Spirit Airlines is struggling financially, but they’ve been running an on-time airline. Frontier Airlines always does poorly with this.
I tend to think Spirit has overinvested in its on-time performance, and isn’t being rewarded for it (perhaps given its toxic brand). Meanwhile Frontier knows that its customers pay for low fares in incovnience. Although even they have been trying to get better, with planes sticking close to assigned cities, flying more out-and-backs, in order to localize disruptions.
For the first six months of the year, on-time rankings looked similar at:
- Hawaiian
- Southwest
- Delta
- Spirit
- Alaska
- United
- Allegiant
- JetBlue
- American
- Frontier
Southwest and Spirit both improved year-over-year, while Delta’s on-time performance declined (but did improve in August, beyond the scope of this data).
But on-time operations aren’t the only important piece of information. Allegiant, Hawaiian, Southwest and Alaska did the best completing their flights. They held down cancellations to below 1% of their operation for the first six months of the year.
American, on the other hand, was by far the most likely to cancel flights (at 2.69%). Meanwhile, Delta’s reliability fell the most year-over-year at 1.22% cancels versus 0.65% in the first six months of 2024.
American didn’t just cancel the most flights, they mishandled the most bags too. And while Southwest may often take a while to deliver bags to the carousel (and certainly in comparison to Alaska and Delta), they did a great job with mishandled bags – only JetBlue and Allegiant performed better. Allegiant isn’t transferring bags between airlines (like Southwest) or between aircraft generally. So it’s hard for them to lose luggage.
While American is the worst with bags, they’ve at least gotten better, so they aren’t the worst by as wide a margin. Indeed, in the first six months of 2025 United was almost as bad.
And, surprisingly, American actually wasn’t the worst with mishandling wheelchairs during the first six month of 2025 on a per capita basis. JetBlue was actually worse. (So American was ranked #9, and JetBlue dead-last at 10th.) When broken out by ‘operating carrier’, though, American’s wholly-owned regional carrier PSA was dead-worst per capta (#14).
American continued to involuntarily deny boarding to more passengers than the rest of the industry combined.
Delta Air Lines did not involuntarily bump a single passenger during the first six months of 2025. American involuntarily bumped 7,163 passengers. That’s actually up compared to last year. (Southwest involuntarily denied boarding to about 100 passengers each during the period.) Frontier, though, is the most likely to do it.
What’s going on here is that Delta has a lot more voluntary denied boardings. They just make passengers whole with compensation. They offer gift cards, not just travel credit, and consistently are willing to increase their offers to several thousand dollars until passengers agree to take later flights. American, on the other hand, just says tough luck – we’ll pay the required minimum.
- Delta’s method is better for passengers, who get more compensation
- And it’s better for passengers because the people taking a later flight are the ones who opt in (and are therefore the least inconvenienced).
Unsurprisingly, DOT data shows that American was by far the most complained about airline in June (1,996 DOT complaints is more than double United and Delta). American had by far the most civil rights complaints as well. American was also the only airline with a reported injury to an animal in June.
The most complained-about foreign carriers were Turkish and Qatar, followed by Air France and Lufthansa. The most complained about travel agency was Expedia.
The report doesn’t just show which airlines are doing well – there’s data-backed wisdom to base travel planning as well. Across the 30 largest airports, on‑time arrivals are most likely first thing in the morning – starting in the mid‑80%s in the 06:00–09:00 block and degrading into the 50%s–low 60%s after 5 p.m. Overall, things get even worse flying later.
Major U.S. airlines (via Airlines for America, the trade association) are proposing to eliminating or scale DOT reporting and consumer protection requirements, including this Air Travel Consumer Report. Their lobby shop filed a 93-page comment arguing the requirement to report performance statistics publicly constitutes an unnecessary reporting burden.
Broadly speaking I’ve agreed with the airlines that some recent DOT rules exceed the agency’s statutory authority, so as compensation arequirements and strict guidelines on how airfares and schedules can be displayed (the Biden administration lost out in the courts over forcing all fares to be shown inclusive of fees like a single checked bag). There’s no congressional legislation requiring this – just the broad mandate for safe and efficient air transportation, and against unfair and deceptive practices.
However basic reporting of which airlines get passengers, bags, and wheelchairs where they’re going is the kind of transparency that directly cuts against unfair and deceptive practices – and, indeed, even knowing whether an airline is behaving deceptively requires some basic data on its performance.
So basically AA’s ops have been the pits this year. What value proposition are they even offering these days, beyond AAdvantage (which is still good, but not as good as it used to be. Award prices on AA metal have been on a slow creep upwards).
this is a valuable report which should be reported on each month and should continue to be required for airlines.
AA’s hubs are just too tightly scheduled to work well.
NK and WN’s operations are much better than they used to be but there are too many strategic issues which operations can’t overcome.
UA’s baggage handling is often down at the bottom of the industry with AA even though UA does better w/ on-time
DL clearly makes the math for its DB compensation work and also runs the consistently highest LFs in the industry
My takeaways:
1. AA is in a tailspin and don’t check a bag
2. NK is not as bas as people like to think
3. DL’s performance has eroded
4. B6’s anemic performance will be stressed by opportunistic growth until they stabilize operations.
5. You get what you pay for at Frontier
When I lived in Seattle I would sometimes fly Delta to Las Vegas
One Friday, Delta asked for volunteers. I accepted. The gave me a $600 debit card and put me in a flight 2 hours later.
One the replacement flight, we were seated and about ready to go and a gate agent came on and asked for one volunteer. I immediately got up and yes, got another $600 card.
My Vegas arrival way delayed 5 hours but I was already $1,200 to the good…not too easy to do in Vegas.
AA would have fewer operational issues if they came to terms with the fact that selling 37 minute connections at CLT is a terrible idea.
I once nearly misconnected on an 80 minute connection because CLT’s alleyways are always congested (this is particularly bad over at the PSA operation).
Parker,
and yet DL is still at the top of the industry which would seem to mean the rest of the industry has eroded too.
and you forgot to mention that UA’s baggage handling is not much better than AA’s.
You can understand AA’s baggage handling issues given its short connections but, honestly, why is UA’s baggage handling so bad?
The issue AA has it heavily banks flights and crews often switch a/c for each segment worked. Granted DL and UA bank flights but AA has never seen to be able to do it efficiently.
Banked flights are great when things work right. Most people aren’t heading to a lounge and are sitting in coach so the less overall travel time to their destination the better. It provides more revenue for airlines. But when things go work because of weather there’s a lot of planes without crews or unable to find an open gate.
@Tim Dunn Boy, you can spin things like a top.
1. DL is behind HA and NK for on-time arrivals in June and behand HA and WN for YTD performance.
2. DL is behind FIVE airlines for flight cancellations (and this is despite sometimes delaying flights 16+ hours).
3. DL is behind SIX airlines for number of mishandled bags.
Operational reliability my ass.
What’s fascinating is that AA has sacrificed so much customer good will and employee morale in order to make “on time” the top priority. And they still screwed it up. Again.
@Tom I see Delta offers often but usually I’m in a time crunch for work or family commitments but one of these days I’ll take one. They’re usually starting at $400 and go up.
Parker,
1. HA has long been at the top of on-time arrivals; that is easy to do when you have one flight/day to NYC. HA will be no more as a reporting entity in a few months.
I specifically said that WN has improved its operation.
2. The report doesn’t say where flights are being cxld but they are predominantly in the NE and esp. NYC. DL is running the best operation in the NE including cancellations. UA loves to talk about how good the on-time is at EWR since the FAA imposed caps on EWR but they have had to cancel a lot more flights to get there. Even in June, EWR had an airport on-time of 69.9% which was about 3 points better than JFK and 6 points better than LGA. But anyone that thinks that anyone is changing their airport preference because of even a 6 point difference in on-time on a baseline that was one of the worst system on-times in years is delusional.
3. DL’s operational competitors WRT baggage handling are other network carriers which include AA, AS and UA. DL was ahead of all 3. DL’s baggage mishandling rate was far closer to those heavily point to point domestic carriers than it was to AA or UA, which as much as you want to pretend otherwise, are frequently at the bottom of the list for mishandled bags.
How about you explain to us why UA’s baggage mishandling is so low on a consistent basis given that it is pretty easy to see why AA’s baggage mishandling rates are so bad but those reasons don’t seem to be the same for UA?
one other tidbit that can be gleaned from the DOT report is that the number of bags WN checked fell by other 2 million (20% while enplanements fell by 3 million (6%) compared to the same period last year.
WN’s checked baggage charges are forcing people to either carry more on the plane or take less luggage than they did before
@Tim Dunn how about you start by explaining why you have to make everything about Delta. It’s tired and damaging to your credibility.
I offered a POV on multiple parts of the report. You, per usual, anchor on the one comment about Delta and use it to go on the attack about United. And, when you anchor you then attempt to gaslight by quoting half-truths and distorted information to make your case. You use the approach “if you can’t win on logic, poke holes in the data.”
Delta is fortunate to have someone as blindly loyal as you in their camp.
Gary, Are the executives at AA specifically grilled on this poor performance by analysts on earnings calls? How has the BOD and executive team not been replaced?
Parker,
you do realize that Delta is the third word in the title of this article?
Gary did not note that UA’s baggage handling is down at the bottom of the industry right there w/ AA even though AA gets all of the bad press.
you chose to highlight DL’s position on multiple metrics that was not at the top but don’t like me pointing out that DL is much closer in its performance on several of those metrics to some of those low cost and point to point carriers than they are to AA or UA.
How about you actually look at the data and make sure you really want to make the points you try to make before you come out swinging?
@Tom K from Seattle — Mr. moneybags over here! Nicely done!
@Parker, @Tim Dunn — Get a room, you two! And if that’s not available, sometimes airport lounge shower attendants will often let couples share a facility, cutting down wait times, cleanings, and even saving water. So, Tim, think of the savings at SkyClubs!
I do what I do on social media because it is easy to win against people like Parker that spout off about talking about DL when it is the 3rd word of the title.
Someone else did the very same thing last night.
This is easy esp. while watching college football.
Frontier will offer vouchers from $250-$500 for voluntary bumping. Once you try to use them, they are usually worth $5-$25 because the voucher doesn’t include taxes and fees. A flight could cost $50. The flight is $5, but the taxes are fees are $45, so your $500 voucher is only worth $5. The voucher is usually one-time use, so Frontier would get to keep $495.
You end up paying $45 for the flight out of your own pocket.
DL’s on time numbers would look similar to AA’s if they had the same block time on the same routes rather than engaging in egregious schedule padding.
Wow 0 vs 7,163 bumps speaks volumes. It’s great that this data is shared.
P.S. @Tim Dunn — Speaking of college football, are you following this UGA/TENN game?? Barn-burner!
@Tim Dunn if I were the only person clapping back at you I’d think it was me, but I’m not the only one. You try to bully with an opinion and talk over anyone who has a different POV. But, hey, you do you.
@1990 you have no room to talk about how others engage people on here. You know I like you, but that glass house of yours is rather fragile.
yes, L737, that was epic. What a field goal failure.
Parker,
the majority doesn’t dictate what is right or not.
The simple fact is that DL runs the best operation of comparable airlines.
NYC is and has been a clear problem for airlines; June on-time for the entire US airline system was well below average and below last year’s June.
And the fact still remains that, even where DL is not in the top couple of places in a specific metric like baggage, it is far closer to the top group of carriers than DL is to AA and UA.
that is not bullying. those are simple facts. You chose to make very statements that can either be validated by numbers. This isn’t an opinion contest.
If you don’t want me to clap back, then think long and hard if the statements you choose to make can be backed up by data.
I made it abundantly clear that your statements do not stand up to rational, data driven analysis.
@Parker — Friend, I knowingly throw rocks from my tiny glass house… for the thrills! Haha.
@L737, @Tim Dunn — Much better than FLA-LSU… Oof, Gators gettin’ killed this season… (USF? Sheesh…) Oh, but at least they beat… *checks notes* ‘Long Island University’ *facepalm* Surely, the Georgia game will go well…
Any breakdown available by hub? For AA, I’m pretty sure their numbers are worst at DFW, which is truly cursed by weather delays. Operating out of ORD can’t help either.
In any event, the only airline that has truly MATERIAL better operating performance is Hawaiian. But that’s do almost solely to favorable local weather conditions, that nobody can really do anything about.
Otherwise, it would be very difficult for any human to actually perceive a 5% difference in on-time performance. Rather, if you value being on time — and especially if you’re making a connection — it’s a no-brainer to fly early in the morning. Heck, I’d bet Frontier’s morning flights beat Hawaiian’s afternoon flights. Curiously, despite all the blather by travel pundits, few stress the pitfalls of taking late-day connecting flights.
@Chopsticks — Here’s an ‘umm ackchually’ style response for you:
I agree, generally, on ‘early morning’ as greatest likelihood of on-time performance; however, it’s no guarantee, and there are plenty of issues with inbound aircraft getting cancelled late the prior day, leading to delays or cancellations on those early morning flights. Usually, airlines are good about repositioning or substituting aircraft, but sometimes they fail, and you wake up at 4AM for your 7AM flight to see that you’ve been rebooked on a 10AM alternative because 7AM isn’t happening anymore.
Also, Hawaii can get hurricanes, so, the weather isn’t always ‘great’ there, but, yeah, Hawaiian does seem to get good marks proportionately; they just don’t fly to too many places though. Anyway, isn’t knit picking kinda fun?!
I’m at a loss for words after reading all of this! Unbelievable!!
I’m at a total loss for words after reading all of this! Unbelievable!!
AA’s board and executives simply MUST be replaced. PERIOD.
I’m not surprised American is pretty much the worst in every category. I flew twice a week last year for work. The first 8 months was all with American because I had status. Constant delays, cancelations, terrible customer service, and missed connections due to delays. I finally got fed up and switched to Delta after American left me stranded at MSP. I hope American goes bankrupt.
I think some people and some of these scoring systems are making a fundamental mistake. American is NOT a transportation company and haven’t been since around the time of the merger with US Airways. They ARE a sales and marketing company that is only interested in revenues whether or not any transportation ever even occurs. Revenues are important, of course, but if people stop flying you because you don’t actually fly as you expected then you won’t have any revenues. Would a transportation company schedule transfers at Heathrow from BA to AA in 30 minutes when you have to clear transfer security 45 minutes before the flight? Would a transportation company reschedule 12 of 17 trips, sometimes shifting it by three to five minutes? Would a transportation company cancel your flight home due to “weather” when every airline is on schedule there (including all other AA flights) and then, of course, deny a hotel voucher? I am sure the executive team and the board get immediate notification of the website is down and they can’t sell tickets for two hours. I bet they never get any notice that the flight to Paris was 11 hours late today or that the Madrid flight waited 120 minutes to dock and get the baggage to the terminal. They are clearly the worst airline in the country and seemingly oblivious to the continued decline of their entire enterprise. How sad.