Guide
US airline on-time rankings: 14 carriers, four measures
Delta Air Lines led US airlines at 81.1% on time and JetBlue Airways trailed at 71.3%. Rank them on cancellations or long delays and the order changes.
Allegiant Air cancelled 0.68% of its scheduled flights from September 2025 to August 2026, a lower share than almost any airline in the country. On arriving on time it ranked 10 of 14, at 73.9%. Which of those facts matters depends on the trip, and that is the problem with any single airline ranking.
The DOT's on-time table ranks carriers by one number. This guide ranks all 14 reporting carriers four ways: how often they arrive on time, how often they cancel, how often a flight runs an hour or more late, and how late their late flights run. The leaders change on every measure.
On time
US average 77.3%
65.0%85.0%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
Delta Air Lines led at 81.1%, with Envoy Air at 81.0% and Hawaiian Airlines at 80.8%. Of the 14, 3 cleared 80%. At the other end, JetBlue Airways ran 71.3%, Spirit Airlines 72.0% and Frontier Airlines 72.7%. The median carrier sits at 75.7%, and the whole field averages 77.3%.
Network shape explains a lot of this. Hawaiian flies short inter-island hops in steady trade winds, far from congested mainland airspace. JetBlue is concentrated at JFK, Boston and Fort Lauderdale, three of the weaker airports in the country, and Spirit and Frontier fly tight schedules with few spare aircraft, the pattern covered in the low-cost carriers guide.
Two rows cover less than the full year, and I would read both with care. Hawaiian is reported under its own code only from August to December 2025; from January 2026 the same flights, inter-island included, appear under Alaska's code. I noticed it when the Honolulu to Kahului route split into two carrier files. Spirit's filings stop in early May 2026, so its record has no June or July, two of the three weakest months nationally.
The gap from first to last is real for a frequent traveller, but it is smaller than the national gap between the 5am–8am and 5pm–8pm departure windows, 21.3 points.
The hour you fly can matter more than the airline you fly.
Cancellations
US average 1.89%
0.00%5.00%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
The cancellation table reshuffles almost everything. Allegiant Air cancelled least at 0.68%, then Hawaiian Airlines at 0.87% and Southwest Airlines at 0.92%. Southwest is the name to notice at that end: middling on punctuality at 75.7%, near the top on actually flying its schedule.
The highest rates were PSA Airlines at 4.80%, Republic Airways at 4.55% and Spirit Airlines at 4.52%, and regional carriers crowd that end of the table. Their figures follow from how disruption is managed. When a ground delay programme at LaGuardia or Washington National cuts the number of arrivals, the mainline partner decides which flights to drop, and the short regional sectors go first because their passengers can be moved to a later frequency. PSA, much of whose flying runs through Charlotte and Washington National for American, cancelled 4.80%. Republic, heavily present at the New York and Washington airports, cancelled 4.55% while ranking 7 of 14 on time.
Envoy is the sharpest split. It ranked 2 of 14 on time at 81.0%, yet cancelled 2.19%, above the median of 1.79%. Cancelled flights drop out of the on-time rate entirely, so a carrier that cancels readily can post a flattering punctuality figure. The cancellation rate guide explains why the two measures need reading together.
Flights an hour or more late
US average 8.3%
0.0%15.0%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
For a connection, a dinner reservation or a cruise departure, the question is not whether a flight is late but whether it is very late. Hawaiian Airlines put 4.2% of its arrivals an hour or more behind schedule, Alaska Airlines 4.9% and Southwest Airlines 6.7%. At the top of the table, JetBlue Airways reached 12.1%, PSA Airlines 12.1% and Spirit Airlines 12.0%. The national figure is 8.3%.
Alaska is the carrier this measure promotes. Its on-time rate, 79.7%, is good rather than outstanding, but only 4.9% of its flights ran an hour or more late, well under United at 7.8% even though the two post similar on-time rates.
How late the late ones run
US average 36.6%
0.0%50.0%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
The last measure asks a narrower question: once a flight is late, how bad does it get? Hawaiian Airlines was the best, with only 21.9% of its late flights reaching an hour. PSA Airlines was the worst at 45.7%. PSA's late flights averaged 96 minutes behind, against 73 minutes nationally.
Southwest looks different here. Its late flights averaged 53 minutes, one of the lowest figures of any carrier, and 27.6% of them reached an hour. That is consistent with an airline that keeps a large fleet at big stations and turns aircraft quickly: many small delays passed from leg to leg, few long ones, because a spare aircraft is rarely far away.
SkyWest is the reverse. It arrives on time 78.7% of the time, above the median, but 42.3% of its late flights ran an hour or more and they averaged 88 minutes. SkyWest flies small jets to small airports, and an aircraft that breaks at an outstation with no spare and no mechanic on site waits for both to arrive. Most days that never happens. When it does, the delay tends to be long.
When the ticket says one airline and the aircraft another
Four of the 14 carriers are regional airlines that you cannot book directly. Envoy and PSA fly only as American Eagle. SkyWest flies for United, Delta, American and Alaska. Republic flies for American, Delta and United. The DOT records each flight under the company that operates it, so American's figure of 74.7% covers the flights American operates itself, and Envoy and PSA file their own. Delta is the exception in this data: Endeavor Air, Delta's regional subsidiary, never appears as a separate carrier at Delta's hubs, and those hubs put more delay under "air carrier" and less under "late-arriving aircraft" than the national split. I read that as a reporting convention, not a finding about Delta's operation.
That matters for a ticket buyer. A flight sold as American could come from a carrier running 81.0% on time and cancelling 2.19%, or one running 73.5% and cancelling 4.80%. The booking page shows "operated by" in small print next to the flight number. Read it. The regional carriers guide covers which partners fly for whom.
How I pick an airline for a trip
For a trip with a hard arrival time, rank by the share an hour or more late, not by the headline rate. Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines lead that measure.
For a trip that must happen on the day, rank by cancellations. Allegiant and Southwest cancel rarely. The riskiest combination is a regional carrier at an airport that cancels often, such as LaGuardia or Washington National. With PSA cancelling 4.80% of its flights, I would not put a must-travel day on a PSA-operated leg if a mainline flight were available.
For a tight connection, look at the tail. A carrier whose late flights run long can turn a small problem into a missed last connection.
Check the operator before you book. On regional-heavy routes the brand on the ticket tells you little about the record you are buying.
Then check the route. Airline averages mix very different networks. The big three and middle-tier carriers guides compare them in more detail, and every route page ranks the carriers on that route.
See each airline's record: Delta · United · American · Southwest · SkyWest · Compare any US route