Best and worst airline performance of 2022

Every month, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issues an Air Travel Consumer Report detailing the performance of the nation’s airlines. The 59-page report issued in February has specific details on how well the carriers did in December and, in some categories, during 2022 as a whole.

On-time performance

One of the major measures of how well an airline performs is its on-time record. How many flights took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, and how many landed within 15 minutes of when they were supposed to arrive?

While the report provides the details for each individual airline including the smaller regional carriers that fly under a major’s banner, it’s most useful to look at the performance of a carrier’s entire network, which includes its branded codeshare partners. After all, if you bought your ticket through Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and the plane says “Delta Connection,” you may not know (or care) that you’re actually being transported by one of Delta’s five codeshare partners. You bought Delta because you like it, trust it, or have most of your accrued miles with the airline, so the rest is just details.

Best on-time arrivals record of the Big Three legacy carriers

That said, the nation’s most reliable airline or airline network for on-time arrivals was the Delta Airlines Network . At all 209 U.S. airports to which it flies, 77.5 percent of its flights arrived on time in December 2022. 

Second best was the American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) Network with 73.7 percent of its flights into 225 airports arrived on time in December. Third was the United Airlines (NYSE:UAL) Network with 71.8 percent of its flights into 220 airports arriving on time in December. 

From there, the numbers fall off rather dramatically. Super-economy carrier Spirit (NASDAQ:SAVE) had on-time arrivals of 65 percent at 61 airports, Southwest (NYSE:LUV) 60.7 percent at 107 airports, the Seattle-headquartered Alaska Airlines (NYSE:ALK) Network at 60.5 percent for 106 airports, followed by jetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU - 59.1 percent at 61 airports); Hawaiian (NYSE:HA - 58.1 percent at 21 airports); Allegiant Air (NASDAQ: ALGT - 57.2 percent at 124 fields); and Frontier (NASDAQ:ULCC - 56.6 perdcent at 80 airports).

On-time departures were not reported by carrier in the report but by airport. That makes sense when you consider that departure delays are, more often than not, a function of what’s happening at and around the airport in terms of traffic, weather delays, etc.

Cancellations

Another measure of airlines’ performance is the percentage of its flight operations that were cancelled. Hawaiian Airlines has the best record percentage-wise, with 0.92 percent of flight operations cancelled during all of 2022. The Delta Network was second, with two percent cancelled for all of last year followed by Alaska at 2.16 percent, the United network at 2.71 percent, American at 2.81 percent, followed by Frontied, Spirit, Southwest, Allegiant and jetBlue, at 2.87, 3.0, 3.26, 3.52 and 3.74 percent, respectively. 



Mishandled baggage

What are the chances of your bags arriving when you do? Overall, pretty good, actually.

American Airlines continues its grasp on the bottom rung of the nation's airlines when it comes to mishandled bags, with .88 bags per 100 being “mishandled” in 2022. By the numbers, that’s a 0.0088 percent chance your bag will be misdirected, lost, or otherwise mishandled; not quite one percent.

However, I was apparently targeted by the Fickle Finger of Fate in 2018 on my way back from the Florida panhandle – on American. While I was heading to my home airport of Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA), my bag was taking a side trip to Santiago, Chile (SCL). I got it back a few days later with all my possessions intact and, in fairness, I should mention that American did right in terms of the courtesy it extended for my trouble.



The best in September was Allegiant, with .16 bags per 100 misdirected. Hawaiian was No. 2 with .38 misdirected bags per 100, followed by Frontier (.42), Spirit (.50), Delta (.53), Southwest (.54), United (.66), jetBlue (.68), Alaska (.72), and American.

Denied boardings

The report also lists the number of voluntary and involuntary denied boardings. Because there is a wide range of reasons a passenger might voluntarily give up their seat, I believe it most telling to focus on those who had no choice.

In that category, Allegiant Air had NO involuntary denied boardings during all of 2022. Delta had two out of more than 160 MILLION emplaned passengers and Hawaiian had only four, though it had a fraction of Delta's passenger load, at just shy of 10 million passengers. From there, things seem to go off the rails. United denied boarding to 212 passengers out of more than 130 million, jetBlue denied 209 passengers their seat, Alaska gave the thumbs-down to 537 passengers, Spirit denied boarding to 1,324 would-be passengers followed by Frontier (6,081), American (8,506), and cellar-dweller Southwest (8,751). Percentage-wise, those numbers represent from 0.0 percent to 2.66 percent of passengers involuntarily denied boarding; statistically, a small percentage overall.

The report, which is available here, also has figures for mishandled scooters and wheelchairs; consumer complaints (overall and by category); civil rights complaints (other than disability-related); incidents involving the loss, injury or death of animals during air transportation; and complaints about TSA activities and procedures.

Reports are issued approximately the 15th of each month and detail performance two months prior.

Visit my main page at TheTravelPro.us for more news, reviews, and personal observations on the world of upmarket travel.

Photos by Carl Dombek
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