Delta Air Lines was once again the best on-time carrier in the U.S. and Canada in September, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium.
They were followed by Alaska, which consistently does well on this metric. Every major U.S. airline cancelled fewer than 1% of its flights for the month, though JetBlue was the least on-time carrier (just slightly worse than Frontier) and second-worst for cancelled flights (American was most-likely to cancel).
Overall, United and Spirit performed well. American, Frontier, and JetBlue perofrmed poorly. Wihle Southwest’s on-time performance slipped to be worse than American’s, they tied for U.S. industry-leading in completing and not cancelling their flights.
Given its scale, Delta’s relative performance is even more impressive – and the distance American Airlines is behind becomes even clearer.
Operational performance isn’t just on-time performance, of course. American generally ends up last for mishandled bags and lost wheelchairs, and also for involuntarily denying boarding to passengers due to oversold flights.
Among global airlines, Delta was third. The most on-time was Delta’s vassal to the south, Aeromexico. Looking at performance over the past three months, Delta overcame a poor period to consistently hit high marks. They were tops in August also. July was brutal across-the-board, while August was a bit better and September pretty good for most carriers.
There’s a relationship between most on-time airline and most on-time airport. Aeromexico was the most on-time airline, and Mexico City number two among airports. Delta was tops in the U.S. and Canada, and its Salt Lake City and Detroit hubs were both in the top 6 among the largest world airports for on-time performance. Honolulu, which often has the least weather to deal with, was in the number one slot.
Ultimately, September’s airline punctuality rankings show that Delta is in the lead and United hasn’t actually caught up – but also that American continues to slip. And JetBlue and Frontier, of course, can’t seem to get their acts together. At least at Frontier ‘paying with your time instead of money’ is baked into the value proposition.
@Tim Dunn — “Delta Dominates” great start to the week, eh? Keep Climbing! 100 more years!
So D0 on American exists only to torment passengers and staff.
So D0 exists on American only to torment passengers and staff.
it is worth noting that DL’s ontime percentage is further above AS than AS is to UA, AA and WN.
The fall is always a good time to make up space in the annual on-time race because of good weather
The difference is that DL adds just a little more block time to reduce the percentage of flights that are delayed in bad weather but those extra minutes in good weather -like the fall – mean that a fairly high percentage of DL flights gets in early. Other airlines just are not willing to invest that much extra in being on-time.
and poor B6 just can’t get out of the cellar.
None of this really makes sense. AA completed we do we not see the REASON WHY ?
Also is not the Airport issue of pushback and take off vs the airline.
Can not tell you how many flights i been on where the doors are shut and we just sit there. Waitinig for a push back, for the tower to clear a runway for take off, , sitting in line “We are #12 for take off”
Landing at an airport and waiting to get to a gate because there are non free (thanks FAA for sgiving them all the DL). Waiting to get to a gate because rescue and fire was blocking the gate as a man was having a heart attack on another arriving flight. Waiting for snow to be cleared sot he plane could hook up
Anecdotal of course but I flew Delta, United, and AA last week and only the AA flight got delayed. These figures absolutely make a difference when choosing a carrier when there’s a competing route.
@1990 — Woohoo! @Tim Dunn has spoken (great points), now for @Matt to make an appearance as well!
No mention of September’s FAA system outage that cancelled more than 500 AA flights out of DFW, more than 1,800 delays, and numerous effects throughout the system? Not AA’s fault but let’s make no mention of it so we can prop up DL…
@Tim Dunn — Speaking of weather, oof, not great in the Mid-Atlantic these 48 hours. Apparently, the post-Sandy resiliency efforts in NY/NJ are paying off, for now (no flooded tunnels, yet.)
@tomri — Whining about a delay caused by a fellow passenger’s heart-attack… bad karma, dude.
Personally I always “bake in” departure and arrival delays at MIA since the airport runs on Cuban time, habitually late on arriving and leaving.
In September AA got hammered at DFW due to a near week of intense storms. These stats are easily impacted when a mega hub has multiple days of bad weather. Let’s see what happens to UA this month with all the problems at EWR.
@George Nathan Romey — Not to nitpick or ‘defend New Jersey,’ but other than the shutdown, which is affecting all airports, and the issues from earlier this year with the runway construction (now complete) and staffing shortages at the FAA (not great, but not terrible compared to other months), what are “all the problems at EWR” that you’re referring? I mean, this Nor’easter isn’t good, but it’s like a 1-2 day event, not a ‘week of intense storms.’
@Tim Dunn, when is Delta announcing that 787 order again? I didn’t hear anything about it happening for that employee celebration that you mentioned so many times was going to be where they’d announce it?
The completion factor numbers make me laugh. They are a matter of how one defines “completion.” Cases in point:
1. Flying FLL-DCA last month. Weather and crew timing delayed my 6:05pm flight to 12:30PM the next afternoon.
2. Flying though ATL Sunday night. See a DL flight to SNA. Scheduled to leave at 8:36pm. Delayed to 8:05am the next day.
Are the technically a “completed” flight? Yes. From a point of practicality are they “completed?” Depends on who you ask.
@Parker — Mercy. Not good. Sorry, bud.
@1990 Meh, my summer of travel has been absolutely lousy. Strandings. Cancellations. Reroutes. Delta. United. Spirit. JetBlue. This too shall pass.
The klan airline pads schedules so much this is not surprising, CEO Mr. Hairgel has said as much.
What is surprising is that doofs like AA cannot figure out said cheat code too.
Well clearly I have been on the wrong flights with DL this year given the stats. Almost everyone has been delayed for one reason or another. I would 25% of my segments have been on time. Yes, some is due to ground stops, but there have been non stop operational issues with DL, from simple things like actually putting the safety cards in the plane that required a 3 hour delay, and then we were delayed even more because they couldn’t start the plane due to a bad APu. No other airline I fly has so many delays due to bad APUs so they have to take a bunch of extra time to jump start the plane at the gate. right now I never show up on the upgrade list and if they try and ‘fix’ it then it breaks my boarding pass. Are you serious? Premium Airline is a joke. No American carrier is a Premium Airline. They just happen to have better flight attendants and service personnel. DL used to be great but they have just been such a horribly mixed bag. It has become where the servie is bad enough that the higher cost is just a gamble.
@Parker & @Caesonia — Disruptions, delays, cancellations, etc. are all frustrating; it won’t prevent them from happening, but air passenger rights legislation like EU261 or Canada’s APPR at least compensate us passengers when the airlines mess up. I continue to advocate for an equivalent in the USA because receiving $200+ every time you’re delayed 3+ hours at least helps cover some of the inconvenience and creates the right incentives to get airlines to operate more reliably and timely. As usual, we often need to ‘follow the money.’