Mexican airline Aeromexico achieved the world's best record for on-time arrivals in 2024, according to an annual ranking released Thursday. Delta Air Lines received the highest score of any U.S. airline despite a computer glitch that caused thousands of flight cancellations in July.
Aviation data provider Cirium said: report Almost 87% of Aeromexico flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time. It is widely used among airlines as a metric for on-time performance.
Saudia, Saudi Arabia's flagship airline, ranks second in the world with just over 86% on-time performance, according to Cirium.
Cirium has been evaluating airline timeliness for 16 years. CEO Jeremy Bowen said 2024 was a difficult year for the airline due to severe weather patterns and summer technology outages. The winning airline therefore deserves credit for getting the most passengers to their destination on time, Bowen said.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines achieved an on-time performance of more than 83%, good enough to rank third in the world. The next U.S. airlines were United Airlines, with nearly 81%, and Alaska Airlines, with just over 79%, Cirium said.
Canada's WestJet, Air Canada and Denver-based low-cost airline Frontier finished last among U.S. and Canadian carriers with on-time performance below 72%.
Other winners around the world were Japan Airlines, Spain's low-cost airline Iberia Express, Panama's Copa Airlines and South African low-cost carrier Flysafair, according to Cirium.
Sirium said the best airport for on-time departures in 2024 is King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Almost 87% of flights there took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, Cirium said.
Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru and Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City had the next best departure records, recording more than 84%.
Delta Air Lines took the top spot among U.S. airlines despite disruption from an outage caused by a flawed upgrade that cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike sent to Microsoft computers around the world in July. .
Delta Air Lines sued CrowdStrike, claiming the outage cost the airline $500 million. Crowdstrike defended itself by arguing in part: Other airlines recovered more quickly From a power outage.
