American Airlines and its partners – 2.81% of flights canceled. Frontier Airlines – 2.87% of flights canceled. Spirit Airlines – 3% of flights canceled. Southwest Airlines – 3.26% of flights canceled.
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Most major airlines canceled or delayed flights, but Southwest Airlines canceled at least 70% of its flights Monday -- more than 2,600 -- due to a reported system meltdown. The chaos continued Tuesday, with the airline canceling 62% of flights for the day and canceling 62% of flights on Wednesday.
Airlines With the Most CancellationsSpirit Airlines had the most cancellations last week—2.07% of its flights. Frontier Airlines was right behind Spirit, with 1.87% of flights canceled.
“It is 'normal' to expect around 1 to 2 percent of flights to be canceled,” said Gary Leff, author of ViewFromTheWing.com. He added that around 20 to 25 percent of flights are late by at least 15 minutes, though it's harder to track the range of how delayed flights are.
In December 2022, Southwest Airlines, a major U.S. airline, and the third largest by domestic passenger volume, canceled more flights than usual, including more than 60% of its flights on two days.
Southwest has often experienced more cancellations than other major carriers. Major carriers as defined by US Bureau of Transportation Statistics; 2020 cancellations elevated because of the Covid-19 pandemic; Data for each year represent January to September, the most recent month available for 2022.
For the third year in a row, Hawaiian Airlines scored the top spot as the most reliable U.S. carrier across these metrics. It had the lowest cancellation rate (fewer than 1% of its scheduled flights were canceled) and bumped just four passengers out of the nearly 10 million people it carried in 2022.
Southwest Airlines reviewsOnline customer reviews tend to agree with Skytrax's assessment. According to the 2022 Airline Quality Rating report, Southwest was ranked as the No.1 airline in 2021 and 2020. In addition, Southwest had the second lowest consumer complaint rate in 2021.
From this data, it looks like some of the worst airlines for complaints include Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and JetBlue Airways. Southwest is still in the top five, with 7.31 complaints per 100,000 enplanements.
These numbers were heavily affected by the mass cancelations and delays of December 2022. Throughout the year, Southwest had a 73.18% rate on on-time arrivals, and 23.35% were delayed while a further 3.26% were canceled.
Like other airlines, Southwest may have to cancel flights when these unanticipated events occur. These are some of the most common reasons for Southwest flight cancellations: Mechanical issues. Safety is important when flying more than 500 mph at 30,000 feet.
Frontier Airlines has had the worst on-time arrival performance so far in 2023. Just 65.41% of Frontier flights arrived on time from January through April 2023. The next-worst airlines were Hawaiian Airlines (66.39%) and Spirit Airlines (66.97%).
BTS data from July 2021 to June 2022 shows Hawaiian performed best of all U.S. airlines with just a 0.81% cancellation rate. Delta took second place again — with a cancellation rate of 1.63%. Meanwhile, merger partners JetBlue (3.81%) and Spirit Airlines (4.11%) canceled the highest percentage of all flights.
#1 Delta Airlines - The US' Most Reliable AirlineAlthough Delta scored top overall, the airline is steadily in the middle of the pack for mishandled bags. They also rank among the worst for denied boarding, but the percentages are very small - 0.05% in 2022 and 0.07% in 2023.
Tuesday was the clear winner with the least cancellations and the least flight delays, with Monday close behind. According to the study, the best days of the week to fly are Tuesday and Monday, and the worst days of the week to fly are Thursday and Friday.
Southwest Airlines operations back to normal Friday after canceling over 15,000 flights. Southwest resumed normal operations Friday after canceling more than 15,000 flights in just over a week, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight status in real time.