American Airlines has been named the most reliable carrier for Holiday travel by eSIM provider Airalo, who trawled through two years of data from the Department of Transportation to determine which US airlines were most likely to get passengers home in time for Christmas.
While American Airlines might have more than its fair share of problems, the data suggests that the Fort Worth-based is less likely to cancel flights in the busy December travel period than rivals like Delta and United.
In December 2022 and December 2023, the airline operated a total of 151,557 flights, and while 1,210 of those services were axed at the last minute, that still represents a cancellation rate of just 0.80%.
American’s wholly owned regional subsidiary, PSA Airlines, also performed well in Airalo’s ranking of Holiday travel reliability, coming in second place with a cancellation rate just shy of 1%.
Delta Air Line also performed well with a cancellation rate of 1.19%, while JetBlue missed out on a podium finish, taking fourth place with a cancellation rate of 1.21%. United Airlines performed slightly less well, with 1.27% of 118,261 flights operated in December 2022 and December 2023 canceled at short notice.
This data might not, however, tell the full picture, as American Airlines reported an on-time arrival rate of just 71.6% in the first half of 2024. Much worse than Delta, United, Hawaiian Airlines, and Southwest Airlines who reported on-time arrivals of between 75.5% and 86.8%.
And the data doesn’t look much better for Holiday travel, with Airalo’s research revealing that American Airlines didn’t make it into the Top 5 of the most punctual US airlines in December.
Passengers who use wheelchairs and mobility devices may also be wary of traveling with American Airlines. In October, the carrier was slapped with a record $50 million for its treatment of passengers with disabilities and for mishandling wheelchairs.
The Department of Transportation accused American Airlines of numerous serious violations of the laws protecting airline passengers with disabilities,” which resulted in disabled passengers being injured or receiving undignified treatment.
American Airlines has invested $175 million to improve the experience for disabled passengers and customer claims for mishandled wheelchairs have dropped by 20% over the last two years.
American Airlines is still one of the worst major carriers for mishandling wheelchairs and is doing significantly worse than rivals like Delta Air Lines.
One airline missing from Airalo’s comparison of the most reliable airlines for Holiday travel is Southwest Airlines. That’s because the carrier suffered a major operational meltdown in December 2022, resulting in thousands of flight cancellations.
It will be interesting to see whether Southwest manages to climb up the leaderboard in the coming years if it can avoid a repeat of 2022’s mess.
