North American carriers’ average on-time performance in September improved for a second month in a row, increasing 5.5 percentage points from August levels to 77.3 percent, according to Cirium’s latest monthly report.
Each qualifying carrier showed month-over-month improvement, with WestJet clocking the highest jump of 14.2 percentage points to 76.5 percent. Three carriers moved above the 70 percent level, leaving just Air Canada and JetBlue below that marker, even though the former gained 8.3 percentage points from August and moved up from last place.
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Delta Air Lines was on top again at 86.4 percent, followed by Alaska Airlines at 83.8 percent. United was third at 82.5 percent, with American Airlines close behind at 82.3 percent. Delta and United once again made the global on-time performance list, at third and 10th.
North American airlines in September canceled 9,852 flights, a 24.3 percent decrease from August.
Alaska had the highest September completion factor at 99.8 percent, followed by Southwest Airlines at 99.6 percent.
A flight is considered on time if the aircraft arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.
