When booking airline tickets for business or leisure how often do you look at the airlines recent on time performance? Unless you are a frequent business traveler, chances are this aspect of the airline is one that does not register when considering which carrier to book.
Airlines do measure their operational performance and are bench marked by the DOT in the US which provides transparency in to this operational indicator. Whilst the on time performance of one airline over another might not be a primary selection criteria for consumers, it does give us an insight how the airlines are managed and how much capacity to recover from events such as technical issues, weather conditions etc.
Named and shamed by the DOT
Based on the DOT published data for the top 10 US carriers for 2021 and 2022. Allegiant airlines reported the highest number of late flights, slightly higher than JetBlue and Frontier in 2022. JetBlue who has one hub of operation on the east coast is seasonally impacted by mother nature and drives higher rate of operational delays. The tri-state airports JFK, LGA and EWR also have ATC operational challenges to navigate through, which slows the flow rate of arriving and departing aircraft. Again nothing the airlines themselves can do to alleviate these factors but are important back stories to remember.
Unfortunately, Allegiant has been top of the delay list of the top 10 US
airlines for the last couple of years. Kudos to Delta and United who have the lowest delay rate as a % of their operations. Keep in mind statistically that both Delta and United have huge fleets so a small % of a bigger fleet is also relevant for the statisticians. American last year averaged the most minutes delay per flight. Delta, Alaska and Hawaiian averaged 18mins average per flight delay.
Travel Tip!
As a traveler there are a proliferation of apps available that help you identify on time performance by airline and even by the specific route and flight number. One I highly recommend for ease of use is FlightStats which is free to use for basic functions. Simply enter your flight number as below.
You can then select the On-Time Performance button to view the historic performance of the selected flight.
You should then be presented by a similar graphical view as below view which is easy on the eye and to understand. Imagine trying to get access to this kind of information 15-20 years ago. There is little excuse now not to plan diligently before selecting an airline or route. Granted price is always going to trump on time performance, but consider this level of planning if you are on tight schedule and connecting. A 20min delay could result you missing a connection.
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