These Airlines Are the LEAST Likely to Cancel Your Flight in 2025 (And #1 Might Surprise You)

Are you starting to plan for your 2025 trip to Disney World?

Orlando Airport

It’s never too early to start working on your plan — especially when you think about how we live in a world where flight cancellations can throw a wrench into even the most meticulously curated travel itineraries. Knowing which airlines are the most reliable can be a game-changer. So as we think about those 2025 plans, let’s take a look at recent data to see which airlines are better than the rest when it comes to keeping flights on schedule and minimizing cancellations.

To start with, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the flight cancellation rate in 2023 reached a record low of 1.2%, which is great news for us!

When considering choosing an airline with the lowest risk of cancellations in 2025, make sure to review the Airline’s historical cancellation rates and History of on-time performance. (Resources like the OAG On-Time Performance (OTP) report can be incredibly helpful.)

Let’s first look into the cancellation rates.

©OAG

Looking into the data from January 2024, JetBlue is leading the pack with the lowest rate (1.84%). After JetBlue, you’ve got Delta (2.21%), American Airlines (3.32%), Southwest Airlines (3.80%), then United Airlines (7.02%), and Alaska Airlines with over 12.27% of their flights being canceled. Clearly, Alaska Airlines is hurting due to nearly 25% of the fleet being B737-900 Maxs. So, in the meantime, it looks like you’d want to stick with JetBlue, Delta, American Airlines, or Southwest Airlines if you want an airline with a less than 5% cancellation rate.

Now let’s look into the on-time performance data.

©OAG

Of the Top 20 Largest Airlines, here are where the U.S. carriers rank:

Delta Air Lines (#1; OTP 83.21%),
Alaska Airlines (#7; OTP 81.04%),
American Airlines (#8; OTP 79.11%),
United Airlines (#9; OTP 78.67%),
Southwest Airlines (#11; OTP 75.51%),
Spirit Airlines (#14; OTP 69.45%),
and JetBlue Airways (#17; OTP 68.25%).

With this report in mind, it looks like Delta might be your top choice. Then, taking this data and comparing it with the cancellation rates, your top carriers might be: Delta followed by JetBlue, American Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. In the meantime, we’ll have to see how Alaska Airlines recovers from this Boeing fiasco throughout the year.

Travel

Until then, whenever you’re flying make sure you’ve prepared yourself by downloading your airline’s app, having the notifications set to contact you in case of a delay or cancelation, keeping an eye on the screens at the airport that display flight information, as well as listening to any and all announcements about your flight. If your flight does get delayed or canceled, be sure you know about your rights as a passenger.

Stay tuned to DFB for more.

NEWS: Over 200 Southwest Airlines Flights DELAYED at the Orlando Airport

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