In this category, Canada’s two biggest airlines are worst in North America

Canada’s two biggest airlines did the worst job among North America’s 10 major carriers in getting passengers to their destination on time in August, a report released this week shows.

Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, placed dead last while WestJet was ninth in the latest rankings that track the on-time performance month to month of the largest carriers in the United States and Canada (see charts below).

While both Canadian airlines are no strangers to the bottom half of the monthly rankings (with a couple of exceptions earlier this year), August is the first month of 2024 in which the two carriers occupied the bottom two spots.

Both Montreal-based Air Canada and Calgary-based WestJet operate many or most of their flights out of Pearson Airport in Mississauga,

Air Canada landed 61.2 per cent of its 35,809 August flights on time, meaning nearly 39 per cent of those flights were late getting to their destination, aviation data firm Cirium’s latest On-time Performance Report shows.

The report notes a flight is considered late if it lands 15 minutes or more past its scheduled arrival time.

WestJet, meanwhile, saw 63.7 per cent of its 18,197 August flights make it to their destination on time, meaning more than 36 per cent arrived late.

Long Island, N.Y.-based JetBlue placed No. 8 on the August list, landing 64.29 per cent of its 29,047 scheduled flights on time (just over 35 per cent late), the Cirium report shows.

In July, WestJet placed dead last in the rankings (60.85 per cent of its 18,424 flights were on time, meaning nearly 40 per cent were considered late) while Air Canada was No. 7 (65.52 per cent of its 35,820 flights were on time, with just over 34 per cent late).

Canada’s biggest carrier has consistently placed in the lower half of Cirium’s monthly rankings since 2023, often occupying 10th spot.

Leading the August on-time list was U.S.-based Delta Air Lines, which landed 80.9 per cent of its 151,861 flights on time, while United Airlines (U.S.) placed second (78.38 per cent of 142,087 flights on time) and Southwest Airlines (U.S) ranked third (78.17 per cent of 120,391 flights on time).

Delta regained top spot on the list in August after having dropped to No. 3 in July. Prior to that, the major U.S. carrier was No. 1 for 10 consecutive months.

In analyzing the data, Cirium report authors noted earlier that major airlines in the U.S. — particularly Delta — were severely impacted by the CrowdStrike IT outage that hit on July 19 and lasted several days. It resulted in numerous delayed and cancelled flights, which significantly impacted on-time performance for those airlines.

For WestJet, its latest showings represent a significant fall from April and May rankings, when it placed second and third, respectively.

In both February and March, WestJet placed 10th on the on-time performance list, according to Cirium.

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 August show of the 776,132 flights across North America (10 airlines combined), 71.53 per cent arrived on time. That’s up from July numbers that show 68.75 per cent of 794,272 flights arrived on time. In June, 73.15 per cent of 762,572 flights were on time.

Airlines’ on-time performance for December 2023, February 2024, March 2024, April 2024, May 2024, June 2024, July 2024 and August 2024 appear above. Numbers for January 2024 were not made available. (Source: Cirium Aviation Analytics)

(Cover photo: Pearson Airport X)