Cirium: Air Canada Retains June N. American On-Time Top Spot

Air Canada in June for the second straight month led North American airlines in on-time performance, with a score of 77.2 percent, according to airline analytics company Cirium. 

The overall North American June on-time average, however, declined again, by 3.1 percentage points month over month to 73.3 percent. The June performance for each carrier that Cirium included in the May list declined, except for Spirit Airlines, which held steady at 75.8 percent. Frontier, which was last place in May, dropped off the June list and was replaced by Allegiant Air (71.2 percent) in eighth place.

American Airlines, in last place for June, had the steepest decline at 5.7 percentage points, followed by Southwest Airlines (down 5.2 percentage points) and WestJet (down 5 percentage points).

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None of the North American carriers made Cirium's list of top global airlines for June on-time performance, which was led by Saudia at 91.3 percent.

Three North American carriers had completion factors above 99 percent: Spirit (99.6 percent), JetBlue (99.5 percent) and Alaska Airlines (99.4 percent).

In June, North American cancellations reached 13,986, higher than the 10,576 in May.

A flight is considered on time if the aircraft arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time.

 Cirium: Air Canada Leads as May N. American On-Time Average Tumbles