These Airlines Were the Most and Least On-time in October, Data Shows

Frontier once again was the least reliable.

By Alison Fox Alison Fox

Alison Fox is a Travel + Leisure contributor. She has also written for Parents.com, The Wall Street Journal, and amNewYork. When she’s not in New York City, she can be found at the beach or on the slopes. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines Updated on November 13, 2024

Close A flight departure board at LaGuardia Airport in NYC. Photo:

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure

Delta Air Lines maintained its title as the most on-time airline in the U.S. in October, despite a devastating hurricane that affected carriers across the region.

Delta boasted an on-time rate of 90.53 percent last month, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium shared with Travel + Leisure. That was good enough to rank second-best in the world and an improvement from September when the carrier had an on-time rate of 87.81 percent.

However, as a whole, North America saw a 35 percent increase in flight cancellations in October. Cirium said that was largely thanks to Hurricane Milton, which walloped large swaths of Florida and forced several airports to close for days.

“Despite the increase in cancellations, airlines in the region saw an improvement in their on-time performance scores,” Cirium wrote in its report, adding North America’s cancellations “only accounted for 19 [percent]… of the total global cancellations in October.”

Following Delta was United Airlines, which boasted an on-time rate of 88.13 percent last month. That was similarly an improvement over September when the carrier saw an on-time rate of 86.47 percent. 

American Airlines and JetBlue rounded out the top five most on-time airlines in the U.S.

On the other end of the spectrum was Frontier Airlines, which once again was the least-punctual airline in the region with an on-time arrival rate of just 76.06 percent. That was a slight drop from September when the carrier was on time 76.5 percent of the time.

Globally, Aeromexico once again retained the title as the most on-time airline in the world with 91.88 percent of its flights on time, a slight improvement from its own still-very impressive September rate of 91.13 percent.

When it came to airports, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) took home the title as having the highest on-time departure rate in the world (an improvement from September’s second place showing). There, 90.69 percent of flights took off on time. 

In the United States, that was followed by Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), which came in at No. 4 in the world with an on-time departure rate of 89.56 percent, and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), which came in at No. 5 in the world with an on-time departure rate of 88.81 percent.