Cirium: Delta Leads in March N. American On-Time Performance

After Southwest Airlines led in North American on-time performance for the past two months, Delta Air Lines has recaptured the lead in March, according to the latest report from aviation analytics company Cirium.

Delta's month-over-month performance improved by 2.2 percentage points to 82.8 percent, while Southwest's dropped 1.3 percentage points to 81 percent, landing it in fifth place. United Airlines was second at 82.5 percent, while Spirit rounded out the top three at 81.7 percent, even though its average was down 0.1 percentage points.

The on-time average for March increased 4.8 percentage points month over month to 79.5 percent. The jump for Air Canada to 75 percent in March from 60 percent in February helped pull up that average. 

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Frontier was the third reporting carrier whose average declined, down 0.1 percentage points to 74.8 percent, while WestJet did not qualify in March.

None of the North American carriers made the March list of top performing global carriers, which was led by Saudia at 94.1 percent.

Five out of the nine reporting carriers had March completion factors of at least 99 percent, led by Spirit at 99.6 percent and followed by Delta, Southwest, Alaska Airlines and United.

In March, North American carriers canceled 9,554 flights, down from nearly 13,600 in February.

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

 Cirium: Southwest Leads N. America in Feb. On-Time Performance