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.

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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