RANKED: The airlines least likely to delay or cancel your flight

• Cirium's annual on-time arrivals report shows Delta was the most punctual US airline for 2025.
• Budget carrier Spirit Airlines, despite its roller coaster year, beat United and American.
• Aeromexico was the world's most on-time global carrier, with an on-time rate above 90%.

When booking your next flight in the US, Delta Air Lines might be your best bet for a timely arrival.

In 2025, it was the most on-time airline in the US and the 10th most punctual in the world, according to a newly released annual report from aviation analytics company Cirium.

Top carriers often benefit from large, well-organized hubs, simpler networks, or hubs concentrated in regions with fewer weather-related disruptions. The rankings are based on on-time arrivals — defined as flights arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time — and also reflect cancellations.

In 2025, Delta achieved an on-time performance rate of 80.9%, down about 2.5% from 2024. Still, roughly 8 in 10 flights arrived on schedule — and the carrier handled just over 1.8 million flights, compared to about 200,000 each by Aeromexico and Saudia, per Cirium.

According to the aviation data company OAG, 80% or better is considered "pretty good," while only the very best carriers hit 90% or higher.

Delta remains among the world's most punctual airlines, though it slipped from No. 3 globally in 2024 to No. 10 globally in 2025. It did not receive Cirium's "Platinum Award for Operational Excellence" in 2025, despite earning it annually from 2021 to 2024.

Qatar Airways — boasting an over 200-strong aircraft fleet out of its sprawling Doha hub — won Cirium's top award, which goes to an airline that excels in punctuality, network efficiency, operational scale, and recovery from disruptions.

"The airline product is the schedule," Cirium's chief marketing officer Mike Malik said during a press conference. "I keep emphasizing that. And when an airline understands that the schedule is what they're selling, they focus on that; they just become a better operation."

Alaska Airlines came in second in the US with a 79.2% on-time rate. It knocked United Airlines, which faced significant air traffic control issues at its Newark, New Jersey, hub over the summer, down to fourth from its No.-2 spot in 2024. The airlines operated about 453,000 and 1.7 million flights last year, respectively.

US carriers overall experienced heightened operational pressure last year due to sustained air traffic controller shortages and a 43-day government shutdown, the longest in US history.

One airline, however, unexpectedly made the podium: budget competitor Spirit Airlines. In a turbulent year that included re-entering bankruptcy, Spirit jumped three spots to third place in the US with an on-time rate of 78.8% in 2025.

The improvement followed the airline's exit from several airports and the sale of dozens of planes to simplify its network and bolster cash flow.

"There has been a focus at Spirit Airlines to get their operation together for the past 14 months or so," Malik said. "We've seen increases and them posting good numbers, but some of it has to, obviously, do with the fact that they are a much smaller operation and much more tightly controlled."

Here is the list of the top 8 most on-time US airlines for 2025:

1. Delta Air Lines: 80.1%
2. Alaska Airlines: 79.2%
3. Spirit Airlines: 78.8%
4. United Airlines: 78.8%
5. Southwest Airlines: 77.0%
6. American Airlines: 76.4%
7. JetBlue Airways: 74.7%
8. Frontier Airlines: 72.1%

Aeromexico was again the most on-time global airline

Among global carriers, the cream of the crop for 2025 was Aeromexico, with a 90.0% on-time arrival rate. Saudia took second place at 86.5%, and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) came in third at 86.1%. This marks the second consecutive year that Aeromexico and Saudia have earned gold and silver.

Three regional carriers — regional in the geographic sense, not regional jets or feeder airlines — performed even better than Aeromexico: South Africa's Safair at 91.1%, Royal Jordanian at 90.7%, and Panama's Copa Airlines at 90.8%.

Despite beating Aeromexico, these carriers do not qualify for the top three spots because Cirium does not classify them as "global" airlines due to their fewer flights and less complex international networks. Cirium shows Safair, Royal Jordanian, and Copa flew about 63,000, 37,000, and 134,000 flights last year, respectively.

Elsewhere in the world, Cirium listed low-cost carrier Iberia Express, owned by the Spanish flag carrier Iberia, as the most reliable airline in Europe for 2025, with an on-time rate of 88.9%. Philippine Airlines won in the Asia Pacific region at 83.1%.

Virgin Atlantic was named the "most improved," jumping 9.44 percentage points from 74.0% in 2024 to 83.5% in 2025.

Here is the list of the top 10 most on-time global airlines for 2025:

1. Aeromexico: 90.0% (Mexico)
2. Saudia: 86.5% (Saudi Arabia)
3. Scandinavian Airlines: 86.1% (Sweden/Denmark/Norway)
4. Azul Airlines: 85.2% (Brazil)
5. Qatar Airways: 84.4% (Qatar)
6. Iberia: 83.5% (Spain)
7. Latam Airlines: 82.4% (Chile)
8. Avianca: 81.7% (Colombia)
9. Turkish Airlines: 81.4% (Turkey)
10. Delta Air Lines: 80.9% (US)

The top airlines have structural and geographic advantages

The world's most punctual airlines have networks anchored around large, highly optimized hubs — like Copa in Panama City, Aeromexico in Mexico City, or Royal Jordanian in Amman — or deliberately spread across a small number of coordinated airports.

SAS, for example, balances traffic across Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen, limiting bottlenecks. Safair, with the smallest operation among the top three regionals, primarily flies domestically, simplifying its network.

These airlines also benefit from generally less-constrained air traffic control systems compared to those in the US, as well as from locations that largely avoid cascading weather disruptions.

SAS' primary airports, meanwhile, are purpose-built for winter operations.

US carriers American, Delta, and United, by comparison, each operate at least eight major hubs across widely different climates — from wildfires in California and hurricanes in Florida to winter storms in the Northeast and the heat in Texas — making disruption recovery far more complex.