Fly These 10 Airlines if You Want To Land on Time

When you embark on a big trip, few things are worse than a flight delay.

Whether you have a vacation waiting on the other end, are trying to get to a family holiday, or just want to make it home from a work trip, sitting in an airport watching your departure time get pushed back is endlessly frustrating.

While you can’t completely avoid delays, some airlines are more likely to depart on time than others. According to the 2023 data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, these are the 10 North American airlines you should fly if you want to step up your travel game by reducing flights with delays.

Air Canada kicks off the list. The airline flies to 52 U.S. airports with 400 daily flights. About two-thirds — or 63.17% — of its flights arrive on time.

Cancellations are a bit higher compared to other airlines on this list, with 96.29% of Air Canada’s flights being completed as booked.

JetBlue serves 40 million customers annually via 1,000 daily flights, and 68.33% of those journeys arrive on time.

In addition, 98.17% of flights are completed successfully.

Frontier offers more than 500 flights daily to more than 100 destinations, and 68.68% of those flights are on time.

Chances are good that whatever flight you book will end its journey as promised, as Frontier has a 98.34% completion factor.

WestJet is a smaller airline that flies an average of just 420 flights per day, and 69.29% of those flights arrive on time.

The flight completion rate is an admirable 98.22%.

Spirit Airlines manages to keep 71.16% of its more than 500 flights daily on time.

The airline has a 99.03% completion percentage en route to more than 85 destinations.

Southwest Airlines has a 76.26% on-time arrival rate across the airline’s more than 4,000 daily flights that serve 121 airports.

Southwest also has a completed-flight percentage of 99.38%, which is the highest on this list.

Flying 4,500 flights daily to more than 300 destinations means United Airlines has to run efficiently. The airline has an on-time arrival record of 80.04% and a completion record of 98.29%

That puts the airline in fourth place on the list of top performing on-time airlines in North America.

American Airlines is one of the busiest airlines, with 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations around the world.

Operating that many flights is a big feat, and American Airlines does it with an 80.61% on-time arrival record. A robust 98.93% of the airline’s flights are completed.

Alaska Airlines offers 1,300 flights daily to more than 115 destinations, and 46 million travelers use the airline annually.

The airline earns a 99.35% completed-flight record, and 82.25% of those flights are on-time arrivals.

Delta Air Lines comes out on top of this list, even with 4,000 flights daily to more than 290 destinations.

That fact should make you feel good about using one of the top travel credit cards to book a flight with Delta.

The airline has an on-time arrival percentage of 84.72%, and 98.82% of flights are completed. The findings are based on 1.6 million flights total throughout the year, so you know it’s a track record you can trust.

A flight delay is never ideal. Knowing which airlines to book can help keep you on track.

Although no airline has a perfect on-time record, the carriers on this list are great bets if you want to stop wasting money on flights that leave you delayed and feeling grumpy before your vacation even gets underway.