Rossen Reports: See what airline ranks as the most reliable (2024)

FAQs

Which Airlines are the most reliable? ›

Based on our analysis, Delta is the most reliable airline. Delta Air Lines performed the best in on-time percentage and involuntary denied boardings during the time period we analyzed. Alaska Airlines came in second, followed by United Airlines and American Airlines.

Delta Air Lines took the crown—again. It's Delta's third consecutive win and sixth in the past seven years. (Southwest dethroned Delta during the pandemic travel plunge of 2020.)

The most reliable airline of 2023

Delta took top marks in on-time percentage (80.8%) and essentially zero denied boardings.

What Are The Safest Airlines In The U.S.? Spirit Airlines is the safest airline, according to WalletHub, because it had a low number of incidents per 100,000 flight operations, no fatalities, and fewer than 15 people injured in the last five years.

Delta is the best airline in the US for 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal's ranking. It came in first for on-time performance, bumping, and complaints. It was second for extreme delays, fourth for tarmac delays and mishandled baggage, and fifth for flight cancelations — its lowest finish overall.

But two popular airlines — Frontier and Spirit — were ranked at the bottom of the list, with overall scores of 3.22 and 4.11, respectively.

Airlines with the most cancellations

American Airlines had the most cancellations last week — 424 of its flights were canceled. Envoy Air was behind American Airlines, with 221 of its flights canceled. Here are the airlines with the most cancellations last week.

What is the most punctual airline? The most on-time airline in the U.S. is a familiar one: Delta. The industry giant flew more than 1.6 million flights in 2023, and fewer than 16% were delayed and only 1.21% were canceled.

Which airline has never had a crash? ›

EasyJet. EasyJet has never had an accident. In fact, its history is so incident-free, it appears difficult to find any serious issue on one of its flights.

AirlineRatings.com has published its annual list of the world's safest airlines for 2024. Air New Zealand took back its crown as the world's safest carrier, beating out Qantas. United Airlines and American Airlines made the list, but Delta Air Lines didn't.

Delta boasts a higher reliability score and superior onboard experience. The complimentary messaging and in-seat screens give Delta an edge over American Airlines.

Overall, Delta is consistently rated the more reliable airline. And when it comes to first-class flying, Delta's amenities possess a posh factor that United doesn't quite match, though it comes close.

When Nerdwallet ran the numbers on airline reliability from January to August 2023, United and American fared about equally well. Both airlines had similar numbers for on-time performance and cancellations. American had a higher percentage of mishandled baggage and United had more tarmac delays.