For the first eight months of 2023, 1.7% of flights by US airlines have been canceled, far below the 3% cancellation rate for the first eight months of last year and the 2.3% cancellation rate for the first eight months of pre-pandemic 2019, according to the latest Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR) from the Department of Transportation.
Other highlights of the report included:
• Operated flights in August 2023 were up 5.45% year over year from the 598,166 flights operated in August 2022 and up 1.23% month over month from 623,120 flights operated in July 2023.
• In August 2023, the 10 marketing network carriers reported 640,236 scheduled domestic flights, 9,475 (1.5%) of which were canceled. In July 2023, airlines scheduled 638,995 domestic flights, of which 15,875 (2.5%) were canceled. In August 2022, airlines scheduled 613,649 domestic flights, of which 15,483 (2.5%) were canceled.
• In August 2023, reporting marketing carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 77.2%, up from 69.6% in July 2023 and 75.6% in August 2022. The year-to-date on-time arrival rate for 2023 is 75.7%. The airlines with the best on-time arrival rates in the month were Hawaiian Airlines (82.1%), Delta Air Lines network (81.3%) and Alaska Airlines network (80.6%). The lowest were JetBlue Airways (61.6%), Frontier Airlines (62.1%) and Spirit Airlines (65.6%).
• In August 2023, airlines reported 18 tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights, compared with 63 tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights reported in July 2023. In August 2023, airlines reported one tarmac delay of more than four hours on international flights, compared with three tarmac delays of that length reported in July 2023.
