Picking a reliable airline can make or break a vacation. The kind people at Forbes decided to do the hard work for you and analyze which airline you should choose in order to avoid unnecessary stress during vacation time. Micheline Maynard decided to look arrival time statistics in order to evaluate the best and worst airlines.
Top performers same as winter edition of Forbes guide
The statistics show that there is approximately a 25% chance of being delayed on a flight during the summer months. The magazine published a similar list of the best airlines for winter travel, and the top performers are the same this time around.
Hawaiian Airlines comes in first, with 93.4% of travelers arriving on time, the only major airline with a percentage of over 90. In second place, Alaskan had an 86.3% on-time arrival record over the period of the investigation.
The best performance by a major airline was that of Delta Air Lines, which got 82% of its passengers to their destination on time in the summer months, despite the fact that it operates on a number of routes across the South, Midwest and East Coast, which are all prone to afternoon thunderstorms in the summer.
US Airways comes in 4th on the list with a summer on-time record of 79.6%. The airline operated separately from merger partner American over the past three summers, so it was taken as its own entity for the purposes of the investigation.
Fifth place goes to Virgin America, which reported a 79% on-time summer arrival record on its U.S. service, which is currently expanding.
Three major airlines near bottom of list
Some of the worst performers will be familiar to readers of Forbes winter travel list, and other bottom dwellers are best known as regional carriers. Express Jet operates regional services for Delta and United Airlines, and reported an on-time arrival rate of 71.2%. Envoy Air, formerly known as American Eagle, reported a rate of 71.4%.
United Airlines got only 72.4% of passengers to their destination on time, while Jet Blue was only slightly better with a rate of 72.6%. Another poorly performing major carrier was American Airlines, with a rate of 74.29%.
All of the bigger carriers reported a rate of over 70%, and perhaps the best advice is to try and avoid traveling at peak times. Those flying to areas affected by thunderstorms should try to travel earlier in the mornings.
