New research shows Delta is the most punctual airline in 2022

If you are looking for the most punctual airline in the United States, you may want to choose Delta Air Lines.

The Atlanta-based carrier is poised to end 2022 with a more than 84% on-time arrival rate, according to new data released Thursday from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.

Of Delta’s 959,987 flights between January 1 and December 15, 84.1% of them arrived on time, according to new data. This is the second year in a row Delta takes the top spot as the most punctual carrier in Cirium’s analysis.

On-time arrival includes any flight that lands at the destination and arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of the original scheduled arrival time, an industry standard metric often referred to as “A15”.

Cirium’s dataset looks at all flights completed in 2022, through December 15. Out of a total of more than 5 million flights in North America this year, 71.91% arrived on time.

Note that these figures only take into account mainline operations, not operations operated by regional branchessuch as SkyWest or Republic.

You’ll find the full ranking of on-time performance at the end of this post, but Alaska Airlines and United Airlines come in at 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Delta has historically marketed itself as “machine on time,” so it may not be surprising to some aviation observers to see the airline take the top spot in 2022.

That said, the pandemic has brought many obstacles to the aviation industry that hinder on-time operations. In fact, when Delta took the top spot for done on time in 2019it has an impressive performance of 85.69%.

During the pandemic, airports and airlines was understaffedso if something goes wrong, finding a replacement crew or operator underneath the wing is a challenge, leading to what feels like more personnel related delays than before it happened. epidemic.

Even the Federal Aviation Administration has having trouble getting its control centers to the right personnel, causing some flights, especially those to and from Floridato reroute or perform an extended terrestrial delay.

In addition, airlines in general have not recovered quickly from delays and cancellations during the pandemic, and some major airlines went through many crises this early year.

What could have been a fleeting summer thunderstorm or a winter blizzard before the pandemic hit has become a much bigger problem at many airlines in recent months.

All told, airlines are not recovering as quickly as they used to, largely due to staffing challenges, airspace restrictions and airport operations.

Either way, one airline is better than the rest, and that’s Delta — the on-time champion of 2022.