It was a rough year for airline passengers in 2023, with unexpected delays and cancelations making headlines due to weather, staffing and growing pains after the COVID-19 slash in travel. A few airlines and airports did stand out for exceptional on-time stats, though.
Domestic airlines are also celebrating the lowest cancelation rate in a decade at 1.2%. This comes after a high of 2.4% and 2.3% in 2014 and 2022, respectively, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Transportation Safety Administration also declared 2023 the busiest year for air travel since recordkeeping began.
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Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, crunched numbers from 2023 to see which airlines and airports came out on top for on-time performance. They tracked about 3 million flights around the world every month. U.S. legacy airlines and airports fared well against international competitors with the exception of “low-cost carriers.” American carriers did not break into the top 10.
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Airline performance was ranked within each continent and globally at a low cost regarding on-time arrivals. Airport performance was ranked based on size in terms of on-time departures.
A flight is considered on time if it lands or takes off within 15 minutes of the published scheduled time. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimated in 2022 that every minute of delay for an aircraft costs around $100. Delays cost the industry over $1 billion every year.
Delta Airlines topped the North American airlines ranking. Our continent is also home to four of the five largest passenger airlines worldwide, according to Cirium. The top 10 airlines achieved a 74.45% on-time rate for the year’s over 8 million flights, besting 2022’s rate by 0.19%.
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“The industry has experienced a whirlwind of developments, including a continuous increase in travel demand after the pandemic, strain on airport infrastructure, labor shortages, and rising fuel costs,” wrote Cirium’s Product Marketing Director, James Hetzel, in the report. “Additionally, the diverse routes and varying weather conditions in North America present additional complexities for airline operations.”
Globally, U.S. airlines Delta and American came in fourth and tenth in the top 10. The winners had an 83.67% on-time arrival rate for almost 6 million flights.
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The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport took the top spot for on-time departures across the world. In fact, 13 of the top 20 airports were in the U.S.
The group had 78.16% on-time departures. That accounts for 6.7 million flights, over a billion total seats and 2,777 routes.
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Hopefully, airlines and airports can keep up with a growing demand for air travel as we head into 2024.
“2024 is expected to be a milestone for global passenger traffic as it reaches 9.4 billion passengers, surpassing the year 2019 that welcomed 9.2 billion passengers (102.5% of the 2019 level),” wrote Luis Felipe de Olivera, ACI World Director General and Cirium Advisory Board Member.