This graphic ranks America’s most reliable airlines by their percentage of on-time, delayed, canceled, or diverted flights between January–March, 2024.
Data is sourced from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Only marketing carriers have been considered.
A flight is considered “on-time” if it arrives within fifteen minutes of its scheduled time.
Delta Was America’s Most Reliable Airline in Q1 2024
Delta Airlines had the highest on-time flights (84%) amongst the 10 major U.S. airlines, while having the second-highest total flights (353,000) in the same time period. It is also the second-largest airline worldwide by passengers carried.
| Rank | Airlines | On-Time (%) | Delayed (%) | Total Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delta | 84 | 15 | 352,592 |
| 2 | Hawaiian | 80 | 19 | 19,098 |
| 3 | United | 79 | 18 | 315,462 |
| 4 | Southwest | 78 | 21 | 345,868 |
| 5 | Allegiant | 78 | 21 | 28,113 |
| 6 | American | 77 | 21 | 444,020 |
| 7 | Alaska | 74 | 21 | 89,280 |
| 8 | Spirit | 73 | 25 | 63,229 |
| 9 | Frontier | 72 | 26 | 45,860 |
| 10 | JetBlue | 71 | 28 | 60,380 |
Note: Figures rounded. Diverted/canceled flights range between 1-5% across all airlines.
United (79%) and Southwest (78%) also make the top five by on-time flights. American Airlines, is solidly middle-of-the-pack at 77%.
Low-cost-carrier JetBlue ranks the worst with roughly seven out of 10 flights arriving according to schedule. Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines had the highest diverted/canceled rate (5%).
And on average, across the 10 airlines, one-in-five flights ends up delayed.
Critics point out however that the definition of “on-time” and “delayed” leaves a lot to be desired. Firstly, a flight is considered on-time even when fourteen minutes late.
Secondly, it is on-time if it’s within the 15-minute window of its posted arrival time. As a result, over the years, airlines have added minutes to their total flight schedules. This builds in a buffer that doesn’t affect their performance.
Finally, Delta’s metrics for the year will take a hit. The July CrowdStrike outage caused the airline to cancel roughly 6,500 flights over the course of one week. This is more than twice the cancelations in the entire first quarter of the year.
In fact, Delta was the worst-impacted of all airlines, prompting a federal investigation.
Source: Visual Capitalist
