After a two-month recovery, on-time performance for North American carriers reversed course in March, according to the latest report from aviation analytics company Cirium.
The carriers' weighted March on-time average fell 5 percentage points month over month to 71 percent, and nine of the 10 reporting carriers reported declines. The exception was JetBlue, whose on-time performance increased 1.6 percentage points to 70 percent.
Spirit slipped the most, by 14.5 percentage points month over month to 53.6 percent. The rest of the declines ranged from 1 percentage point (WestJet) to 8.5 (Frontier).
Alaska Airlines had March's highest North American on-time performance average at 82.7 percent, followed by Delta Air Lines at 78.6 percent and United Airlines at 78.5 percent.
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No North American carrier made Cirium's March global list of on-time airlines, which was led by SAS at 89.8 percent.
In March, no reporting North American carrier had a completion factor above 99 percent. Alaska had the highest, at 98.7 percent, followed by Southwest Airlines, at 98.5 percent.
The number of North American flights canceled in March was 22,792 compared with 18,080 in February.
A flight is considered on time if the aircraft arrives at the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time.
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