Carrier performance at one airport
AS→ANC
Alaska Airlines at Ted Stevens Anchorage International
- Departures
- 14,800
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 15
- Rank here
- #1 of 4
Alaska Airlines at Anchorage earns a A. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 14,800 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 14,800 at 85.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs about a point ahead of the 84.6% weighted average across all carriers at ANC. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
85.5%
14,560 completed departures
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.39%
At ANC, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 4 carriers clearing the floor at ANC
These figures cover 15,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 10 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at ANC, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 85.5% of the time; American Airlines manages 70.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 573 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 14,800 | 85.5% | 56 min | 1.39% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,716 | 83.9% | 96 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 1,471 | 81.9% | 69 min | 1.22% | B |
| American Airlines | 573 | 70.9% | 120 min | 0.35% | C+ |
The spread between Alaska and American is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Alaska Airlines flies from ANC
Alaska Airlines operates 15 routes out of ANC with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANC to SEA · Seattle | 4,926 | 85.7% | 52 min | 1.24% | A |
| ANC to FAI · Fairbanks | 1,389 | 89.0% | 60 min | 0.86% | A+ |
| ANC to JNU · Juneau | 1,230 | 86.5% | 62 min | 0.33% | A+ |
| ANC to PDX · Portland | 1,179 | 91.1% | 70 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ANC to BET · Bethel | 723 | 82.4% | 52 min | 3.46% | B− |
| ANC to HNL · Honolulu | 440 | 78.8% | 63 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| ANC to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 363 | 89.8% | 41 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ANC to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 358 | 88.5% | 49 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ANC to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 211 | 74.6% | 40 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| ANC to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 173 | 90.7% | 46 min | 0.58% | A+ |
| ANC to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 157 | 82.2% | 49 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ANC to DEN · Denverthin sample | 128 | 86.7% | 44 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ANC to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 75 | 90.7% | 32 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ANC to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 72 | 77.5% | 54 min | 1.39% | B |
| ANC to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample | 55 | 58.5% | 47 min | 1.82% | D |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 15,000 flights.
- 5am–8am2,172 flights89.1%
- 8am–11am2,550 flights88.0%
- 11am–2pm1,993 flights86.2%
- 2pm–5pm2,795 flights79.3%
- 5pm–8pm1,898 flights81.5%
- 8pm–5am3,392 flights88.2%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.1% of the time, against 79.3% for the afternoon window. That is 10 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 3,392 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
January is the weak month at 74.5% on time, against 93.5% in April. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. June was the busiest month here, with 1,569 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 42%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 11%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 11% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 1.8 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 116,966 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.39% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
14,800 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 93.5% on time and January 74.5%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of January before you think about anything else. 14,560 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines at ANC
How often is Alaska Airlines at ANC delayed?
About one flight in seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 14.5% of the 14,800 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Alaska Airlines at ANC?
Alaska Airlines leads at 85.5% on time across 14,800 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 70.9%, a gap of 15 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Alaska Airlines at ANC?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.1% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 79.3%, 10 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are January delays on Alaska Airlines at ANC?
January is the weakest month at 74.5% on time, compared with 93.5% in April. Across the year that is 19 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.