Airlines
Airline Head-to-Head
Put two U.S. airlines side by side on their own federal on-time record — arrival reliability, cancellations, diversions, typical and worst-case delay, and why their late flights were late. The ▲ marks whichever carrier leads each measure. Straight from the U.S. DOT's on-time performance filings over the last 12 months.
Jun 2025 – May 2026 · on time means arrival under 15 minutes late (14 CFR § 234.2)
- Cancelled
- 2.0%
- Diverted
- ▲0.2%
- Typical delay
- ▲−8 min
- Worst 10%
- ▲+43 min
- Flights
- 1,650,385
Why its late flights were late
- Carrier 44.9%
- Weather 7.1%
- NAS 20.1%
- Security 0.1%
- Late aircraft 27.9%
- Cancelled
- ▲1.6%
- Diverted
- 0.3%
- Typical delay
- −7 min
- Worst 10%
- +50 min
- Flights
- 1,503,166
Why its late flights were late
- Carrier 29.0%
- Weather 6.5%
- NAS 27.2%
- Security 0.0%
- Late aircraft 37.3%
Informational only — historical base rates from federal filings, not a prediction of any future flight. The delay-cause split is descriptive context, not a judgement: a carrier is not at fault for weather or air-traffic-control delay.
Methodology
Every figure is computed directly from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Marketing Carrier On-Time Performance filing (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, table 236), reduced to one row per carrier per month. For each airline you pick, the tool sums those monthly rows across the window — on-time counts, cancellations, diversions, the full arrival-delay distribution, and the cause-of-delay minutes — then compares the two.
- On-time % = arrivals under 15 minutes late ÷ arrivals with a filed arrival time. The 15-minute threshold is the federal definition of on-time (14 CFR § 234.2), used unchanged. The carrier with the higher rate leads (▲).
- Cancelled % and Diverted % = cancelled (or diverted) flights ÷ all scheduled operations. Lower leads. Both sit beside on-time on purpose: a cancelled or diverted flight is never scored late, so a carrier can improve its on-time number by not flying the worst flights.
- Typical delay (median) and Worst 10% (90th percentile) are read from the summed arrival-delay distribution, so a multi-month figure is exact — not an average of monthly medians. Lower leads. Values are clamped to a −60…+240 minute domain and shown as a bound (“≥ +240 min”) when they land on the edge.
- Delay-cause split = each DOT cause's share of a carrier's total attributed delay minutes (carrier, late-arriving aircraft, National Aviation System, weather, security), filed only for flights 15+ minutes late. It is shown for context — how much of a carrier's lateness is its own doing versus outside its control — and carries no ▲: a carrier is not at fault for weather or ATC.
Scope & limits. U.S. domestic operations of reporting marketing carriers; this tool serves Jun 2025 onward. Flights are attributed to the marketing carrier — the airline on the ticket — so a regional-operated codeshare counts toward the brand you booked. Only carriers meeting the DOT reporting threshold file, so smaller airlines don't appear; a carrier with fewer than 30 filed arrivals over the window is shown but not rated. Historical performance only: no live tracking, and no predictions.
Last reviewed: July 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which of two airlines is more reliable?
This tool puts the two carriers side by side on the federal record — on-time arrival rate, cancellation and diversion rates, typical and worst-case delay — over a window you choose, and marks which one leads each measure. It never crowns one airline in the abstract; it shows the gap on each number so you can decide which measure matters for your trip.
Why does the tool show cancellations next to on-time rate?
Because a cancelled flight is never counted as late. An airline that cancels the flights it would have flown badly late can post a better on-time rate than one that flew them, so the two figures only make sense together. Both cards show cancellation rate right beside on-time rate for exactly that reason.
What does the delay-cause split mean?
For flights that did arrive 15+ minutes late, the DOT records why: carrier (the airline's own operation), late-arriving aircraft (a knock-on from an earlier delayed leg), National Aviation System (air-traffic control, congestion), weather, and security. The split shows how much of each carrier's lateness is its own doing versus outside its control. It's descriptive context, not a verdict — a carrier is not to blame for weather.
What counts as "on time," and whose delay is it?
A flight is on time if it reaches the gate less than 15 minutes after schedule (14 CFR § 234.2), used unchanged. Flights are attributed to the marketing carrier — the airline on your ticket — so a flight sold as United but operated by a regional partner counts toward United, the airline you actually chose.
Related tools
Every reporting U.S. airline ranked by on-time arrival rate over the last 12 months, with cancellation and diversion rates alongside — because a carrier can lift its on-time number by cancelling.
Open tool →Route Reliability CheckOn-time arrival rates, typical and worst-case delays, and cancellations for every airline on a U.S. route — from the DOT's on-time filings.
Open tool →