Air travel demand continued to surge in 2024, led by a bounce back in international trips.
From January through October alone, revenue-passenger miles worldwide, a demand metric, was up nearly 11% over last year, according to the International Air Transport Association. In 2025, IATA estimates aircraft departures of 40 million, up 4.6% from 2024.
Airlines scrambled to add flights and increase premium seating, which brings in higher revenue, especially on long-haul trips. Challenges from shortages of new aircraft to financial strife continued for some carriers, however, many passengers didn’t face the same flight disruptions as they did during acute staffing shortages coming out of the pandemic.
The most on-time airlines spanned the globe, according to a ranking released Thursday by Cirium. The aviation data firm considers punctuality an arrival that occurs within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. Delta Air Lines topped rankings for U.S. and Canadian airlines despite its struggle to recover from the CrowdStrike outage in July that canceled thousands of flights.
Here’s how the world’s carriers fared:
(Global carriers are based on those that fly to at least three regions; On-time rate in parenthesis)
- Aeromexico (86.7%)
- Saudia Airlines (86.35%)
- Delta Air Lines (83.46%)
- LATAM Airlines (82.89%)
- Qatar Airways (82.83%)
- Azul Airlines (82.42%)
- Avianca (81.80%)
- Iberia (81.58%)
- Scandinavian Airlines (81.40%)
- United Airlines (80.93%)
And here are the rankings for U.S. and Canadian airlines:
- Delta Air Lines (83.46%)
- United Airlines (80.93%)
- Alaska Airlines (79.25%)
- American Airlines (77.78%)
- Southwest Airlines (77.77%)
- Spirit Airlines (76.05%)
- JetBlue Airways (74.53%)
- Frontier Airlines (71.57%)
- Air Canada (71.36%)
- WestJet (70.99%)
Source: CNBC