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Which are the Best and Worst U.S. Airlines for On-Time Flight Arrivals, Cancelled Flights, and Lost Luggage in 2021? Americans have started traveling more after the vaccination roll-out and loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, to the point where many airlines are flying fuller flights and struggling to ensure proper staffing. Here are the figures both for Q1 2021 and for May 2021, the most recent month for which Department of Transportation data is available.
For Q1 2021, there was a gap of over 14 percentage points between Hawaiian Airlines, with the highest percentage of on-time flights at 92.5%, and JetBlue, with just 78.4% of on-time flights. Now, Hawaiian Airlines obviously isn't as exposed to adverse weather events as other carriers with more flights in destinations with wintery weather, so May 2021 is perhaps a fairer barometer, although JetBlue still ranked below legacy carriers at 81.5%, compared to AA at 84%, United at 87.5% and Delta at 90.3%. The upshot: while Delta has a terrible frequent flyer program, it's the best of the major U.S. airlines when it comes to on-time flights so far in 2021.
| Airline | Rank | % On-Time Flights, Q1 2021 | % On-Time Flights, May 2021 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 1 | 92.5 | 93.0 |
| Endeavor Air | 2 | 92.2 | 92.6 |
| Delta Air Lines | 3 | 90.4 | 90.3 |
| Republic Airways | 4 | 88.1 | 91.4 |
| United Airlines | 5 | 87.1 | 87.5 |
| American Airlines | 6 | 86.8 | 84.0 |
| PSA Airlines | 7 | 86.7 | 88.2 |
| Southwest Airlines | 8 | 85.8 | 81.3 |
| Skywest Airlines | 9 | 85.3 | 88.1 |
| Horizon Air | 10 | 85.5 | 89.8 |
| Frontier Airlines | 11 | 85.3 | 84.9 |
| Spirit Airlines | 12 | 85.3 | 84.4 |
| Alaska Airlines | 13 | 84.6 | 89.6 |
| Mesa Airlines | 14 | 81.7 | 78.5 |
| Envoy Air | 15 | 79.9 | 82.4 |
| Allegiant Air | 16 | 79.7 | 78.4 |
| JetBlue Airways | 17 | 78.4 | 81.5 |
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When it comes to cancelled flights, winter weather also plays a significant role, driving up cancellations for Q1 2021 compared to May 2021. Delta Airlines still fares best so far in 2021, with just 0.8% of scheduled flights cancelled in Q1 2021 and so few cancelled in May 2021 that it rounded to 0%, similar to Hawaiian. After Delta, of the carriers our clients fly, JetBlue was best, with 1.8% of flights cancelled in Q1 2021 and 0.2% in May 2021. United Airlines and Alaska Airlines were similar, cancelling 2.6% and 2.7% respectively of their flights in Q1 2021, but similar to JetBlue, just 0.2% of their flights in May. American Airlines cancelled fewer flights than United and Alaska in Q1 2021, 2.2%–but was worse in May 2021, cancelling 1% of flights.
| Airline | Rank | % Flights Cancelled, Q1 2021 | % Flights Cancelled, May 2021 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 1 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| Delta Air Lines | 2 | 0.8 | 0.0 |
| Endeavor Air | 3 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| Spirit Airlines | 4 | 1.4 | 0.1 |
| JetBlue Airways | 5 | 1.8 | 0.2 |
| PSA Airlines | 6 | 1.9 | 0.5 |
| Frontier Airlines | 7 | 1.9 | 0.1 |
| Republic Airways | 8 | 2.1 | 0.2 |
| American Airlines | 9 | 2.2 | 1.0 |
| United Airlines | 10 | 2.6 | 0.2 |
| Skywest Airlines | 11 | 2.7 | 0.4 |
| Alaska Airlines | 12 | 2.7 | 0.2 |
| Allegiant Air | 13 | 3.2 | 0.3 |
| Southwest Airlines | 14 | 3.2 | 0.4 |
| Horizon Air | 15 | 3.3 | 0.8 |
| Envoy Air | 16 | 5.3 | 2.2 |
| Mesa Airlines | 17 | 5.3 | 1.7 |
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In terms of lost luggage, Allegiant and Hawaiian Airlines performed best, with fewer than 2 mishandled bag reports per 1000 passengers for both Q1 2021 and May 2021. Next of the major major carriers was Delta. JetBlue's performance worsened from Q1 2021 to May 2021, going from 3.9 to 4.5, while United improved over the same period, going from 4.4 to 3.0. American Airlines was by far the worst of the major airlines at 6.8 and 6.4 for Q1 2021 and May 2021, respectively.
| Airline | Rank | Mishandled Bag Reports per 1000 Passengers Q1 2021 | Mishandled Bag Reports per 1000 Passengers May 2021 |
| Allegiant Air | 1 | 1.2 | 1.3 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 2 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| Frontier Airlines | 3 | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| Endeavor Air | 4 | 2.4 | 3.2 |
| Southwest Airlines | 5 | 2.7 | 2.8 |
| Delta Air Lines | 6 | 2.8 | 3.3 |
| Spirit Airlines | 7 | 3.0 | 3.7 |
| JetBlue Airways | 8 | 3.9 | 4.5 |
| Horizon Air | 9 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Alaska Airlines | 10 | 4.3 | 4.0 |
| United Airlines | 11 | 4.4 | 3.0 |
| Skywest Airlines | 12 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
| PSA Airlines | 13 | 4.7 | 3.9 |
| Republic Airways | 14 | 4.8 | 4.3 |
| Mesa Airlines | 15 | 5.7 | 4.9 |
| American Airlines | 16 | 6.8 | 6.4 |
| Envoy Air | 17 | 8.9 | 7.9 |
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While many routes have been cut or frequencies reduced such that travelers may not have a choice of airlines for the route they want to fly, it can be helpful to take airlines' recent track records for delayed and cancelled flights into account when choosing flights.
If you've flown a U.S. airline recently, what was your experience?
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