2022 was a banner year for flight disruptions and other air-travel catastrophes, as an ill-prepared aviation sector struggled to keep up with an unanticipated, sudden surge in consumer demand.
In addition to airlines, airports and air traffic controllers being chronically understaffed and behind the curve operations-wise, the year was also fraught from beginning to end with episodes of extreme weather around the U.S.-from blizzards to violent thunderstorms and hurricanes-which only compounded existing challenges.
With incidents like Southwest Airlines' end-of-year holiday meltdown fresh in our collective memory, passengers are probably particularly interested this year in finding out which airlines perform the best in the face of such problems.
Luckily, this week, leading data and analytics firm Cirium released its '2022 On-Time Performance Review', representing the global gold standard for airline and airport performance. The report provides useful global and regional 'top 10' ranking of airlines, scored according to such factors as its on-time performance, operational complexity and ability to minimize the impact of flight disruptions on its passengers.
All of the 'top 10' rankings can be viewed here. But, in the interest of brevity, only North American airlines' placing is presented below.
| Ranking | Airline | On-time Arrival | Total Flights |
|---|
| 1 | Delta Air Lines | 83.63% | 1,004,684 |
| 2 | United Airlines | 80.46% | 789,200 |
| 3 | Alaska Airlines | 80.36% | 243,072 |
| 4 | American Airlines | 78.29% | 1,076,100 |
| 5 | Southwest Airlines | 74.06% | 1,336,888 |
| 6 | Frontier Airlines | 68.32% | 170,047 |
| 7 | JetBlue Airways | 66.35% | 343,673 |
| 8 | Allegiant Air | 65.93% | 117,469 |
| 9 | WestJet | 59.10% | 94,663 |
| 10 | Air Canada | 54.51% | 150,602 |
Cirium's definition of on-time performance is outlined as an aircraft arriving at its gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. Airport on-time performance is measured by on-time departing flights.
The purpose of the annual on-time performance report is to provide industry stakeholders with an impartial, third-party overview, informed by vast data sets collected from more than 600 sources of real-time flight information. These are provided by the airlines and airports themselves, civil aviation authorities, global distribution systems, air navigation service providers, positional data, proprietary data partnerships and the internet. Additional oversight by an independent board of advisors, comprised of unbiased industry experts, also ensures accuracy and proper representation of the information presented.
Cirium CEO Jeremy Bowen said in a statement, "Ramping back up operations so quickly after an enforced slowdown is not easy to do and the top-ranked airlines and airports in Cirium's 2022 On-Time Performance Review deserve their recognition for this well-orchestrated achievement."
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