Nearly 7,200 late flights flown by Canada’s second-biggest airline in July

Canada’s second-largest airline has taken a nosedive the past two months when it comes to getting its passengers to their destination on time, a report released this week shows.

Calgary-based WestJet, which operates many of its flights out of Pearson Airport in Mississauga, once again placed dead last in rankings that track the on-time performance of North America’s 10 major airlines month to month.

The Canadian carrier landed 60.85 per cent of its 18,424 July flights on time, meaning nearly 40 per cent, or 7,185 flights, arrived late at their destination, aviation data firm Cirium’s latest On-time Performance Report shows (see charts below).

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

By comparison, Florida-based Spirit Airlines was ninth on the July list with an on-time flight mark of 65.19 per cent (of 27,153 flights).

Air Canada, which operates more flights out of Pearson than out of any other airport, placed seventh on the latest list, landing 65.52 per cent of its 35,820 flights on time last month. Canada’s biggest carrier has consistently placed in the lower half of Cirium’s monthly rankings, often occupying 10th spot.

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In June, Air Canada landed 69.6 per cent of its 33,373 flights on time, placing it ninth among North America’s largest airlines.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines, meanwhile, was eighth in July rankings (65.3 per cent of 21,013 flights on time).

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

WestJet’s numbers in May were 77.55 per cent of 16,348 total flights and the April data showed the carrier landed 82.7 per cent of its 15,085 flights on time.

In June, Canada’s second-biggest carrier was seventh on the list (71.95 per cent of 16,876 flights were on time), a general location in the rankings more in line with WestJet’s historical showings.

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

Leading the July on-time list was Alaska Airlines, which landed 77.51 per cent of its 40,781 scheduled flights on time. The Seattle-based carrier knocked huge U.S.-based Delta Air Lines from the top spot it had occupied for 10 consecutive months.

United Airlines placed second in July (73.12 per cent of its 142,417 flights were on time) while Delta fell to third spot (72.36 per cent of 154,044 flights on time).

In June, Delta landed 80.05 per cent of 148,781 flights on time, Cirium’s numbers show.

In analyzing the data, authors of the report noted 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.

The widespread IT outage “caused severe disruption for major airlines in the United States,” the report reads. “In July, North America saw the highest number of flight cancellations among all regions (globally), with a staggering 98 per cent increase (from June).”

In total, 23,393 scheduled flights were cancelled by North American airlines (mostly U.S.) in July, up from 11,806 in June.

“The outage had varied impact across the region, but undoubtedly caused declines in the on-time performance scores for most airlines and airports in the region while rearranging the leader board in July,” the report continued.

Cirium officials added Delta Air Lines experienced the most severe impact “due to its greater dependency on Microsoft software systems” affected by the IT outage.

Delta cancelled some 6,500 flights during the disruption.

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 of the 794,272 flights across North America (10 airlines combined), 68.75 per cent arrived on time. That’s down from June numbers that show 73.15 per cent of 762,572 flights arrived on time.

May numbers show 74.43 per cent of 758,039 flights were on time while in April, 79.72 per cent of 724,130 North American flights hit the tarmac safely and on time.

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