North American airlines’ on-time performance (OTP) slipped in March, according to the latest report from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
 
The March average on-time performance was 74.9%, down 5.1 percentage points month over month, but it was up from the 71.7% reported in January. Each of the 10 carriers included in the report posted on-time performance declines, the inverse of February’s changes. 
 
Delta Air Lines again had the highest on-time performance at 85.5%, followed by United Airlines at 82.8%. Alaska Airlines was third with 78.8%. Delta was the only North American carrier to place in the global Top 10 at sixth.

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Frontier Airlines’ drop of 11.7 percentage points was the largest decline reported, followed by Spirit with a loss of 7.5 percentage points. Air Canada had the smallest decline, at 0.2 percentage points, and the carrier moved up to sixth place from eighth in February, with an on-time performance of 75.1% that was above the weighted average.

North American carriers canceled 7,721 flights in March, compared with the 5,803 flights canceled in February.

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