Alaska Airlines is touting its operational performance this summer, which it said topped the U.S. airline industry.
According to an analysis of Cirium data undertaken by the Seattle-based airline, Alaska canceled just 0.3% of its scheduled flights between the Friday before Memorial Day until Labor Day. That figure also includes Alaska-marketed regional flights operated by Horizon and SkyWest.
Alaska's on-time percentage during that period was 81.7%. Under the DOT definition, all flights that arrive within 15 minutes of schedule are considered on time.
Alaska also used Cirium data to review the on-time and cancellation statistics over the summer for United, Delta and American, including the regional flights they market, as well as JetBlue and Southwest.
Among those six airlines, Alaska had the lowest cancellation rate and the highest on-time performance.
In terms of cancellations, Southwest was second best, cancelling 0.9% of scheduled flights in that Memorial-to-Labor Day period. Next came American with a 1.4% cancellation rate. Delta was fourth, cancelling 1.7% of flights. United, which suffered a late June meltdown after bad storms in the New Jersey area affected its hub at Newark Liberty Airport, finished fifth, canceling 3% of its scheduled flights. JetBlue brought up the rear with a cancellation rate of 3.4%.
In terms of on-time performance, Delta finished second among the six largest U.S. airlines this summer, according to the Alaska analysis of Cirium data, arriving on time 81.3% of the time. Next was American (76.5%), followed by United (75.9%), Southwest (71.1%) and JetBlue (60.7%).
The analysis did not include Hawaiian. But FlightAware date shows that Hawaiian canceled approximately .9% of its flights over the summer and recorded an on-time performance of 81.4% during the period between the Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. That on-time figure marks a strong recovery for the airline, whose operations suffered late last year and during the first several months of this year due to runway work in Honolulu that slowed the airline down, particularly in its interisland operations.
Overall, U.S. airlines canceled 1.7% of flights and were on time 75.5% of the time during the summer period, according to FlightAware. Last year, U.S. airlines canceled 2.1% of flights between Memorial Day and Labor and were on time 77.7% of the time.