2 Canadian Airlines Were Just Ranked The Worst For Being On Time & People Aren't Surprised

Two of Canada's major airlines just ranked the worst for punctuality in 2022 in news that may not be surprising to many passengers.

Analytics company Cirium looked at the 10 biggest airlines in Canada and the U.S. and ranked them for their on-time performance, with the only two Canadian carriers in the ranking coming out at the very bottom.

The country's two biggest airlines, Air Canada and WestJet, came out as the worst for punctuality among the 10 carriers.

According to Cirium, of 94,663 WestJet flights, only about 59% were on time. Air Canada fared even worse, with only about 55% of its 150,602 flights arriving on time.

The company says that an on-time flight is defined as a flight that arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled gate arrival.

On the flip side, travellers who want to be extremely punctual should look to Delta Air Lines, which was ranked as the number-one airline in the U.S. and Canada for being on time.

Out of over 1 million Delta flights, about 84% were right on schedule, a much better percentage than Canada's carriers.

U.S. carriers United Airlines and Alaska Airlines also ranked well for punctuality, with about 80% of their flights arriving on time.

Online reactions to the news of how Canada's airlines fared seem to indicate that many are not surprised.

"Shocker," said one person in response to the report.

"This tracks," said another.

"Canada comes in on the low end of most things unfortunately," said another commenter.

Canada's major airlines have faced many delays and ongoing issues in 2022, with a particularly bad stretch of cancellations in the last week of the year due to inclement weather, which is not accounted for in the ranking.

Some passengers were stuck for hours, with one person explaining on TikTok that their Air Canada flight was stuck on the tarmac at Vancouver International Airport for 13 hours amid the winter storm.

Interestingly, a recent report by the Canadian Transportation Agency found that, despite the many delays, Air Canada and WestJet actually had some of the lowest complaints among Canada's major airlines.

From April to September of 2022, for every 100 flights, WestJet received just 4.9 complaints, while Air Canada received an even lower 3.6.

The two airlines that topped the list for passenger complaints were actually two smaller carriers, Flair Airlines and Swoop, which received 13.7 and 12.6 complaints, respectively, for every 100 flights.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.