Late flights plague Air Canada, which runs most of its trips out of Pearson Airport in Mississauga

Air Canada, which operates most of its flights out of Pearson Airport in Mississauga, continues to struggle to land its flights on time, an aviation report released today (Aug. 10) shows.

The latest On-time Performance Monthly Report from aviation data firm Cirium shows nearly half of all Air Canada flights in July were late arriving at their destination (see chart below).

That statistic placed Canada’s flagship airline last in terms of performance among North America’s 10 largest airlines, according to the report, which also showed Air Canada at the bottom of the rankings in June.

According to Cirium, 51.25 per cent of Air Canada’s 36,017 July flights landed at their destination on time, meaning within 15 minutes of the scheduled hour. In June, that number was 52.53 per cent (33,544 flights).

In May, though, Air Canada performed much better, ranking eighth on the list by landing more than 70 per cent of its 32,037 flights on time.

By comparison in July, Alaska Airlines topped the most-recent list by landing slightly more than 82 per cent of its 36,960 flights on time.

Delta Airlines (78.55 per cent of its 146,241 flights) and American Airlines (73 per cent of its 178,457 flights) placed second and third, respectively, in getting flights to destinations on time in July.

The other Canadian carrier on the list, Calgary-based WestJet, which also operates numerous flights out of Pearson Airport, ranked seventh.

It landed 61.88 per cent of its 17,405 flights on time, the data shows.

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 July show that of the 750,955 flights across North America, 66 per cent arrived on time at their destination.

Globally, that number was 82 per cent. In Europe, it was 74 per cent, in the Asian Pacific 77 per cent and 81 per cent in Latin America.

A number of issues have continued to plague Canadian airports as well as those across North America, perhaps, some in the industry say, contributing to the lagging performance when compared with data in other parts of the world.

Shortages of air traffic controllers, pilots and baggage handlers have been issues the past year or so.

(Source: Cirium Aviation Analytics)