A Canadian airline was the worst in North America for landing flights on time in 2023: Aviation report

Air Canada was the worst among North America’s 10 major carriers in getting passengers to their destinations on time in 2023, year-end aviation industry numbers show.

More Air Canada flights originate at Pearson Airport in Mississauga than at any other Canadian airport.

Cirium Aviation Analytics, which tracks the best and worst airlines each month for getting travellers from point A to point B on time, noted in its year-end 2023 On-time Performance Report that in placing dead last in the rankings, Canada’s flagship carrier operated late flights nearly 37 per cent of the time (about 140,000 flights) over the past 12 months (total of 376,451 flights).

A late flight is defined in the report as one that arrives 15 minutes or more past its scheduled arrival time.

That translates, for Air Canada, to an on-time flight mark in 2023 of 63.17 per cent (see top 10 chart below), more than five per cent behind ninth-ranked JetBlue Airways ( 68.33 per cent, based in Long Island, N.Y.) and No. 8 Frontier Airlines (68.68 per cent, based in Denver).

The other Canadian carrier on the list, WestJet, placed No. 7 with a 69.29 per cent on-time mark with its 182,296 total flights in 2023.

At the top of the list, U.S.-based Delta Airlines led the way for a third-straight year in North America, landing 84.72 per cent of its 1.63 million flights on time.

Alaska Airlines placed second (82.25 per cent of its 404,925 flights were on time) while American Airlines was third (80.61 per cent of its nearly two million flights arrived on schedule).

Of more than 8.4 million total flights in 2023 operated by North America’s 10 largest airlines, just under 75 per cent landed at their destination on time.

2023 On-time Performance for North America’s 10 major carriers. (Source: Cirium Aviation Analytics)

Delta, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines (also based in the U.S.) also consistently ranked atop the monthly 2023 rankings while Air Canada consistently finished last or second-last and WestJet in the bottom half in the monthly rankings.

Air Canada, along with the others, did show improvement near the end of the year. The latest monthly report (November 2023, see below) showed that only one-quarter of Air Canada’s 29,824 November flights were late in arriving at their destination, good for a 74.94 per cent on-time mark.

Also, Air Canada was last on the list for three consecutive months before jumping up to ninth place in September, ahead of U.S. carrier JetBlue. It placed ninth once again in October, ahead of WestJet.

Each month, Cirium ranks the 10 largest airlines in a given region around the world based on their on-time performance rate.

Its numbers from November show that of the 693,185 flights across North America (10 airlines combined), 81.86 per cent arrived on time, up from 80.13 per cent in October.

Airlines’ on-time performance, November 2023 (Source: Cirium Aviation Analytics)