Delta Air Lines was the most reliable carrier in North America for getting passengers to their destination on time in 2022, while Brazilian carrier Azul topped the global rankings.
Cirium, an aviation analytics company, honored Delta for the second consecutive year with its platinum award for operational excellence. About five out of every six Delta flights (83.63 percent) arrived on time during 2022, according to Cirium’s data.
On-time flights are considered to arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
“Congratulations to Delta Air Lines for its excellent performance in Cirium’s 2022 on-time performance review,” Cirium CEO Jeremy Bowen said in a release. “Ramping back up operations so quickly after an enforced slowdown is not easy to do, and the top-ranked airlines and airports… deserve their recognition for this well-orchestrated achievement.”
Delta had just a touch above 1 million flights during the year.
United (80.46 percent) and Alaska (80.36 percent) were close behind Delta at the top of the list. Numbers begin to drop off after that.
Cerium’s North America On-Time Rankings
- Delta: 83.63 percent
- United: 80.46 percent
- Alaska: 80.36 percent
- American: 78.29 percent
- Southwest: 74.06 percent
- Frontier: 68.32 percent
- JetBlue: 66.35 percent
- Allegiant: 65.93 percent
- WestJet: 59.1 percent
- Air Canada: 54.51 percent
Spirit Airlines was not included in the rankings.
The numbers are for flights tracked through December 15, meaning no data is included from the holiday season when weather and staffing issues created chaos at the nation’s airports. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed in the days prior to Christmas, but those numbers were not included in Cerium’s year-end data.
Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told USA Today the figures will plummet when the holiday season is included. Keyes noted that any percentage lower than 79 should be considered bad.
Global Rankings
While Delta was the top carrier in North America, it ranked only fifth globally in 2022.
Azul held down the first spot with an 88.93 percent on-time performance, narrowly edging out All Nippon Airlines (ANA) at 88.61 percent, Japan Airlines at 88.00 percent, and LATAM Chile at 86.31 percent.
The rest of the top 10 included Columbia’s Avianca, Air Emirates, United, Qatar, and American.
Regional Rankings
In addition to Delta topping the North America region, Cirium ranked airline performance across the globe.
In Europe, the top performers were Iberia, Air Europa, Iberia Express, Vueling, and Austrian. In Latin America, the top five included Azul, Sky Airlines, Copa Airlines, LATAM Chile, and Avianca. And in the Asia Pacific, top performers were Thai AirAsia, ANA, Japan Airlines, Juneyao, and IndiGo.
For the Middle East and Africa, the top five were Oman Air, Royal Jordanian, Kuwait Airlines, Air Emirates, and Qatar Airways.
Top Airports
In addition to tracking individual airlines, Cirium tracks the performances of airports for their overall ability to get flights in and out on time.
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport topped the list with a 90.33 percent on-time departure ranking, well above the second-place finisher Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, India, at 84.08 percent.
Six U.S. airports were in the top 10, led by third spot Salt Lake City (83.87 percent), fourth Detroit (82.62 percent), fifth Philadelphia (82.54 percent), sixth Minneapolis-St. Paul (81.95 percent), eighth Seattle-Tacoma (81.04 percent), and tenth Charlotte (80.68 percent).
Cirium noted on-time percentages were down across the board in 2022.
“This past year saw a challenging operational environment across the world, particularly in Europe and North America, with many airlines and airports experiencing delays, disruptions, and resource challenges,” the company said. “Others continue to emerge from COVID restrictions, especially in the Asia Pacific region.”
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