The on-time performance for North American carriers hit roadblocks in November and December after several months of improved performance, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.
The November on-time average for the 10 reporting carriers declined 1.8 percentage points to 82.7 percent compared with October 2024. The December average declined 7.9 percentage points month over month to 74.8 percent, with all carriers reporting worse metrics from November.
Seven carriers in November had month-over-month on-time performance declines. WestJet, in last, had the steepest drop at 10.3 percentage points to 73 percent, followed by United Airlines with a 5.2 percentage-point drop to 82.9 percent, landing it in sixth place.
Frontier Airlines improved 1.7 percentage points month over month to 77.8 percent, while Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines increased 0.7 percentage points and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.
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Delta Air Lines in November remained in the top spot with an on-time performance of 89 percent, a 1.5 percentage-point decline month over month. Southwest moved into second place, up from fifth in October, with an average of 86.1 percent, while Spirit, up from sixth in October, rounded out the top three at 86 percent.
Despite the high number of declining averages, five North American carriers in November made the top global airlines list. Delta snagged second, American Airlines was in fifth with an on-time average of 85.3 percent, followed by JetBlue at seventh (84.1 percent), United at ninth and Air Canada 10th (80.4 percent).
December Performance
Air Canada (62.8 percent) and JetBlue (68.8 percent) reported the steepest month-over-month percentage-point declines for December’s on-time performance, at 17.6 percentage points and 15.3 percentage points, respectively. Frontier (75.5 percent) had the lowest drop at 2.3 percentage points, followed by United (80.1 percent) with a 2.8 percentage-point decline.
Delta was first again, at 80.2 percent, which represents an 8.8 percentage-point drop month over month. United was second followed by Southwest (79 percent), whose average declined 7.1 percentage points.
Delta and United in December were the only two North American carriers to make the top performing global airlines list.
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In November, the four carriers with the highest completion factors all performed at or above 99.7 percent: Delta and Spirit tied at 99.93 percent, followed by JetBlue (99.79 percent) and Southwest (99.76 percent).
For December, Delta’s completion factor led at 99.69 percent with Southwest next at 99.66 percent, followed by United (99.23 percent) and American (99.03 percent).
The number of November North American flight cancellations was 4,669, down from the 8,113 canceled in October. In December, cancellations increased to 7,045.
A flight is considered on time if the aircraft arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time.
Cirium: October N. American Air On-Time Performance Improves
