US airlines canceled flights at a rate of 0.6% in February, according to the latest Air Travel Consumer Report (ACTR) from the U.S. Department of Transportation. That was far lower than the 1.8% cancellation rate for February 2023 and the 3.2% rate for pre-pandemic February 2019. Other findings from the report included:
- Operated flights in February 2024 were up 4.35% year over year from the 526,543 flights operated in February 2023 and down 1.95% month over month from 560,352 flights operated in January 2024.
- In February 2024, reporting marketing carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 83.7%, up from both 72.8% in January 2024 and 79.5% in February 2023. The year-to-date on-time arrival rate for 2024 is 78.1%. The leaders for February were Delta Air Lines network (88.4%), American Airlines network (84.1%) and United Airlines network (83.2%). The worst performances were from JetBlue Airways (74.3%), Spirit Airlines (77.8%) and Frontier Airlines (79.8%.)
- The lowest rates of cancellation were from Allegiant Air (0.1%), Frontier Airlines (0.2%) and American (0.3%). The highest rates of cancellation were from JetBlue (1.4%), Hawaiian Airlines (1.1%) and Alaska Airlines network (1.1%).
- In February 2024, airlines reported 10 tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights, compared with 71 tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights reported in January 2024. In February 2024, airlines reported two tarmac delays of more than four hours on international flights, compared with six tarmac delays of more than four hours on international flights reported in January 2024.
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