Each month, aviation analytics company Cirium releases its global on-time performance data for airlines and airports, providing insights into how they’re performing when compared to their peers.
In Canada, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) updates its website with information around customer complaints and enforcement actions taken against airlines (and other transportation services) on a rolling basis.
Our monthly airline report card looks at the latest developments in the world of aviation from a Canadian perspective, pointing out the top performers and looking at trends in Canada and beyond.
Airline On-Time Performance for August 2024
Canada’s two largest airlines have some catching up to do when it comes to ensuring their passengers arrive at their destinations on time.
According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, regarding on-time performance in August for Canada and the United States, WestJet ranked ninth (63.7%), up one spot from its 10th spot in July (60.85%), while Air Canada dropped from seventh place in July (65.52%) to 10th in August (61.12%).
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines bounced back from its Crowdstrike IT challenges in July and landed the number one spot in North America with an on-time arrival rate of just over 80%. United Airlines (78.38%) and Southwest Airlines (78.17%) rounded out the top three performers in North America.
Overall, Cirium reports the North America region improved on-time performance in August by 5% to 8%, after seeing a 24% decrease in the number of flights cancelled in August versus the number cancelled in July.
In North America, a total of 17,765 flights were cancelled in August compared to 23,393 in July.
Here’s a look at the full top ten rankings for how North American airlines placed for the month of August when it comes to on-time performance:
- Delta Air Lines
- United Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- JetBlue
- WestJet
- Air Canada
To provide some context, in order for a flight to be considered “on-time,” it must land within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. Given this, it’s really no surprise that WestJet finds itself in ninth spot after the challenges the airline faced this summer.
Still reeling from a mechanics strike in June that led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, WestJet was dealt another blow in early August when a Calgary hail storm damaged 10% of its fleet.
Following the storm, 17 planes were grounded and required repair, leading to the cancellation of close to 1,000 flights, and this number continues to grow. At the time of writing, only 10 of the 17 planes have been repaired and returned to service, and the airline says it’s “continuing proactive cancellations for the foreseeable future.”
As for Air Canada, according to data from Cirium, the airline is ranked 10th in North America with a 69.12% on-time arrival rate for August, a notable drop from sixth, which is where Cirium ranked Air Canada’s on-time performance back before the summer season in May 2024.
Globally, the month of August saw encouraging developments in on-time performance, including a decrease in the number of regional flight cancellations and improvement in the overall performance of airports and airlines.
Flight cancellations dropped by 5% to 37% in the Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Middle East & Africa regions; however, flight cancellations increased slightly, by 6%, in Latin America.
In terms of global rankings, Aeromexico is back on top for August with an on-time performance of 86.54%, an improvement of nearly 5% compared to July.
It’s interesting to note that Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX), which is the main hub for Aeromexico, also claimed the top spot in the global on-time airports category.
The top ten list for the most on-time airlines globally is as follows for August 2024:
- Aeromexico
- Saudia
- Avianca
- Azul
- LATAM Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Iberia
- United Airlines
- Qatar Airways
- KLM
Insights from the Canadian Transportation Agency’s Website
While arriving on time is what all travelers hope for, so is an overall positive passenger experience. But not all passengers say they’re getting it, and that’s where the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) comes in.
The CTA is a regulatory body that takes a look at complaints from passengers and attempts to mediate and resolve any issues.
It releases a quarterly list of airlines with an average of one or more complaints per 100 flights in Canada, and it’s clear to see which airlines made passengers most unhappy from April to June 2024.
Let’s first point out the gold star for Porter Airlines which, despite being one of the smallest Canadian carriers, received the lowest number of complaints on average, seeing just 1.2 complaints per 100 flights. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Canada’s other low-cost airlines.
Quebec-based Air Liaison placed second during this period, with an average of 2.9 complaints per 100 flights, and now-defunct Canada Jetlines ranked third with 4.2 complaints per 100 flights.
Air Canada followed closely behind this with an average of 4.7 complaints per 100 flights, followed by Air Transat with 4.8, WestJet with 5.3, and Sunwing Airlines with 9.5.
Canada’s last remaining ultra-low-cost carrier, Flair Airlines, garnered the most complaints during this period, with an average of 17.9 per 100 flights. While this is an improvement from the average of 23.2 complaints in the previous quarter, it’s up from its average in the previous three quarters.
Looking back, prior to being taken over by its parent company WestJet, Swoop had the third highest average with just under 14 complaints for every 100 flights. Lynx Air, which folded operations in February 2024, topped the list with the highest average number of complaints (18.9 per 100 flights) before going out of business.
The CTA is currently working through a massive backlog of complaints, and many of the enforcement actions it gives are for complaints that were made a long time ago.
While compensation for delays, cancellations, and baggage issues pertaining to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations are often noted in the enforcement actions, one notable issue appears to be becoming more common: Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities.
This regulation is designed to support the goal of having a barrier-free, fully accessible transportation system in Canada, and non-compliance carries a hefty fine for airlines.
According to the CTA’s list of enforcement actions taken, it handed out more than $1.3 million (CAD) in fines in 2023, and in the first half of 2024, it’s handed out fines just shy of $700,000 (CAD), with a big chunk of those fines being directly related to the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities regulations.
The CTA also publishes results from its decisions; however, they don’t provide much information that could be useful to other passengers. Instead, you can just see the flight number, date, issue, whether or not it was in the carrier’s control, and the order statement.
Conclusion
Canada’s two largest airlines have some work to do when it comes to getting their passengers where they need to be on time. Both airlines have dropped in Cirium’s on-time rankings over the past few months, with WestJet falling from third to ninth and Air Canada falling from sixth to tenth.
For the sake of travellers in Canada, let’s hope both airlines take strides to improve this performance going forward.
While arriving on time is what all travelers hope for, so is an overall positive passenger experience. Canada’s Transportation Agency (CTA) releases a quarterly list of airlines with an average of one or more complaints per 100 flights in Canada.
Porter Airlines scored top spot with the least amount of complaints, followed by Canada Jetlines which folded operations in August 2024, Air Canada, and WestJet. Flair and Sunwing had the most complaints per 100 flights in 2023 and the first half of 2024.