Alaska Airlines in October was the most punctual major North American carrier,

with nearly 87 percent of its flights arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of schedule, according to FlightStats. In total, North American airlines posted a nearly 76 percent on-time flight ratio, down nearly 5 percentage points from September "due to the major flight disruptions" stemming from Hurricane Sandy, according to FlightStats. The storm last month also caused a spike in cancellations, up to 25,921 from 7,985 in September. Delta Air Lines (86.5 percent), US Airways (85.9 percent), Southwest Airlines (83.4 percent), United Airlines (79.4 percent) and JetBlue Airways (78.8 percent) posted above-average on-time performances for October, while American Airlines (68.2 percent) and Air Canada (67.2 percent) performed below average.