August is the busiest month of the year, and with many airlines operating at maximum capacity, it demands high on-time performance. Several airlines that are regular high achievers maintained that form throughout the month. Leading the way is Safair in South Africa, which recorded a 94% OTP rate across the 5,139 flights we tracked, with just three cancellations.
Four airlines join Safair in achieving OTP rates of 90% or higher, plus a cancellation rate below 1%, all of them regular high performers:
- Safair 94%
- Fuji Dreams 93%
- Royal Jordanian 91%
- Gulf Air 90%
Notably, Royal Jordanian and Gulf Air continue to perform at this level despite grappling with the ongoing geopolitical disruption affecting the Middle East.
Seven airlines operated through August without a single cancellation. Jet2.com achieved a remarkable zero-cancellation record across 16,160 scheduled flights, and SkyExpress did the same across 6,772. However, in both cases OTP appears to have been the trade-off: Jet2.com recorded a 60% OTP rate and SkyExpress just 52%. Better to arrive late than not travel at all is perhaps a philosophical way to look at those results for both airlines.
North America: weather and geography take their toll
Summer in North America brings significant weather-related delays - as airports cope with intense weather storms - and geography plays an important role in shaping an airline's on-time performance.
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Five North American airlines cancelled more than 5% of scheduled flights in August with Air Inuit cancelling 6.8% of their flights and only operating at an OTP rate of 56.7%. Amongst the larger North American carriers Westjet cancelled 6.3% of planned services, while Air Canada - with a 5% cancellation rate - performed slightly better than their local rivals.
- Among the US majors, Southwest Airlines had an exceptional month, cancelling just 816 flights (0.7% of all scheduled services) while achieving a 70.7% OTP rate. American Airlines, by contrast, recorded the largest volume of cancellations: 4,828 flights affected across its extensive network.
- View North America's full OTP rankings here
Europe: SAS leads, LCCs diverge
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) were once again Europe's most punctual carrier, with 87% of flights arriving on time – a clear margin ahead of Aer Lingus in second place (83.1% OTP) and Icelandair third (81.7%).
easyJet recorded the most cancellations among European carriers, with some 1,330 flights affected in August and a 2.2% cancellation rate. British Airways was the only other European carrier to cancel more than 2% of its planned programme.
Among the larger low-cost carriers, results were mixed:
- Ryanair - scheduled 116,221 flights, operated 114,852; 0.4% cancellation rate
- easyJet – 2.2% cancellation rate, five times higher than Ryanair
- Wizz Air – outperformed both, cancelling just 19 flights; 0.1% cancellation rate
Middle East: a mixed picture
Saudi Arabian Airlines, normally among the stronger performers, had a disappointing August, cancelling 1,263 flights – equivalent to 7.5% of its planned operation. Cancellation rates across the Middle East carriers were very low in August with Etihad cancelling just five flights in the month and delivering an OTP rate of 70% while their close neighbour Emirates cancelled 27 flights or just 0.2% of their planned operation.
In summary, airlines appear to have performed well in August despite the regular challenges faced from various sources. September may bring some relief to that pressure with slightly reduced levels of frequency, but every day still presents its own new set of challenges. And that’s just a part of what makes tracking on-time performance each month so valuable.