Mexican airline Aeromexico was named the airline with the best record for on-time arrivals in 2024 in an annual ranking released by aviation-data provider Cirium. The report stated that nearly 87% of Aeromexico flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Saudia, the flagship carrier of Saudi Arabia, ranked second worldwide with an on-time performance rate of just over 86%. Cirium has been rating airlines for timeliness for 16 years, and CEO Jeremy Bowen noted that 2024 was a challenging year due to severe weather patterns and a summer technology outage.
Despite a computer outage in July that caused thousands of flight cancellations, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines scored the highest among US carriers with an on-time rate of over 83%, ranking them third worldwide. Following Delta, United Airlines achieved an on-time rate of nearly 81% and Alaska Airlines at just over 79%. On the other hand, Canada’s WestJet, Air Canada, and Denver-based budget airline Frontier finished at the bottom of the pack among US and Canadian carriers with on-time ratings below 72%.
Cirium also identified other regional winners for on-time performance, including Japan Airlines, low-cost Spanish carrier Iberia Express, Panama’s Copa Airlines, and South African low-cost carrier FlySafair. The best airport for on-time departures in 2024 according to Cirium was King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with nearly 87% of flights departing within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru, and Mexico City’s Benito Juárez International Airport followed King Khalid International Airport with the next-best departure records at over 84%.
Despite facing disruptions from a faulty upgrade that cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike sent to Microsoft computers, Delta was able to maintain its top spot among US airlines for on-time performance in 2024. Delta sued CrowdStrike, claiming the outage cost the airline $500 million, but CrowdStrike has defended itself by pointing out that other airlines were able to recover much more quickly from the outage. Overall, the rankings indicated that while there were challenges faced by airlines in 2024, the winning airlines deserved credit for getting most passengers to their destinations on time.
