Which airlines fly on time most often? A data company says it figured this out

Delta Air Lines scored the highest among U.S. carriers despite a computer outage in July 2024.

Mexican airline Aeromexico had the world's best record for on-time arrivals in 2024, according to an annual ranking released Thursday. Delta Air Lines scored the highest among U.S. carriers despite a computer outage that caused thousands of flight cancellations in July 2024.

Aviation-data provider Cirium said in a report that nearly 87% of Aeromexico flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival, a widely used measure of on-time performance among airlines.

Saudia, the flagship carrier of Saudi Arabia, ranked second worldwide, with an on-time performance rate of just over 86%, according to Cirium.

Cirium has rated airlines for timeliness for 16 years. CEO Jeremy Bowen said 2024 was a difficult year for airlines due to severe weather patterns and the summer technology outage. The winning airlines therefore deserved credit for getting most passengers to their destinations on time, Bowen said.

Atlanta-based Delta achieved an on-time rate of more than 83%, good enough to rank third worldwide. The next-best U.S. carriers were United Airlines, at nearly 81%, and Alaska Airlines, at just over 79%, Cirium said.

Canada’s WestJet, Air Canada and Denver-based budget airline Frontier finished at the bottom of the pack among U.S. and Canadian carriers, with on-time ratings below 72%.

Other regional winners around the globe, according to Cirium, were Japan Airlines, low-cost Spanish carrier Iberia Express, Panama’s Copa Airlines, and South African low-cost carrier FlySafair.