The Airlines Where You Are Most and Least Likely to Experience Delays This Summer (According to Data)

Every summer, tens of millions of Americans take to the skies in search of beaches, national parks, and long-overdue family reunions. Those trips are meant to be a highlight of the year, but delayed or canceled flights and lost or damaged luggage can quickly ground even the most anticipated getaway.

The frequency of those problems varies significantly by airline. So to help summer travelers make a more informed choice, the Only In Your State Team analyzed data published by the Department of Transportation from the last four summer seasons to identify which carriers are the best and worst at getting passengers where they need to go, and with their luggage in hand.

Key Findings 

• Hawaiian Airlines led all carriers with the lowest delay rate (18.1% of flights) and the second-lowest cancellation rate (0.7%).
• Frontier Airlines had the worst on-time performance among major carriers, with more than one in three summer flights delayed (34.51%) and the highest cancellation rate (3.1%).
• Late-arriving aircraft are the number one cause of summer travel delays, accounting for more than 41% of all delay minutes, with delays due to airline management accounting for nearly 34.5% of delay time. 
• Luggage is most likely to be mishandled by American Airlines during the summer months, as the airline damages or loses 0.93% of checked bags, about one bag every other flight.

The Best Airlines for Summer Travel

On-time performance varies widely across the air travel industry, with a pair of more specialized carriers the most likely to get customers to their vacation destinations on schedule. 

As the name suggests, Hawaiian Airlines primarily serves flights to and from Hawaii, operating fewer than 30 routes worldwide. This limited scope appears to be a benefit when it comes to travel timing, as just 18.1% of Hawaiian Air flights experienced extended delays during the last four summer travel seasons, the lowest rate of any major airline. Hawaiian Airlines is also one of just two airlines to cancel less than 1% of their summer flights in recent years. 

The other airline with a sub-1% cancellation rate is Alaska Airlines, another carrier with a more limited route network, though it serves nearly 4 times as many destinations as Hawaiian Airlines. Alaska also has one of the three lowest delay rates among airlines at 21.6%.

When it comes to companies with a broader scope of travel destinations, Delta leads the pack, with just 20.4% of its summer flights delayed from 2022 to 2025. That is the second-lowest rate among airlines, regardless of size, which is particularly impressive given that Delta operated more than 1.6 million flights during that timeframe. Comparatively, Hawaiian and Alaska operated just 81,000 and 436,000 flights in that same four-summer stretch, while the only airline to fly more often than Delta, American Airlines (1.9 million flights), had more than 27% of its flights delayed. 

Summer Travel Delay Caused by the Airline

Airlines are required to report when flights are delayed, including listing the cause. When it comes to reporting, there are four categories into which delays can fall, with the airlines themselves bearing more responsibility for certain categories than others. 

The delay category that can be laid most squarely at the airlines' feet is Carrier Delays, which are entirely within the airlines' control. This includes delays caused by crew issues, baggage loading and unloading, and extended cleaning or maintenance. Southwest is the airline where the smallest percentage of overall delay time is caused by carrier delays, at just 28%, while nearly two-thirds of Hawaiian Airlines' delay time falls under this category, significantly more than any other airline. 

Late Aircraft Delays are another category in which airlines play a role, though they are not always entirely to blame. These delays occur when a plane scheduled for a flight arrives behind schedule after a previous route. These kinds of delays tend to stack or cascade and impact schedules down the line, and can be caused by any number of things, including carrier issues delaying an earlier flight’s departure, though they can also be attributed to elements beyond a specific airline’s control, such as weather or having to wait for space to land if an airport is overly crowded by other planes and carriers. Late aircraft delays account for the highest percentage of delay time for all but two airlines (Hawaiian and Delta).

The final two major delay categories are Weather Delays and NAS Delays. Weather delays involve extreme conditions such as tornadoes, snowstorms, and hurricanes, which make it unsafe to operate an airplane. NAS delays refer to the National Airspace System and account for delays caused by a range of issues across the air travel industry, including heavy air traffic, non-extreme (but potentially unsafe) weather conditions, airport operations, and more. Both of these account for a relatively small share of delay time across airlines.

It is worth noting that airlines and the government also track delays caused by security issues at airports, but these account for just around 0.05% of all delays and were therefore excluded from this analysis. 

Airlines That Are Most and Least Likely to Mishandle Your Summer Luggage

Arriving at your destination (ideally on time) may be the most important part of a summer vacation, but getting where you’re going only to have your luggage lost or damaged in the process can be a major bummer. 

Over the last four summers, more than 1 million bags were lost or damaged on American Airlines flights, accounting for nearly one-third of all mishandled bags across the U.S. air travel industry during that period. That is partially due to the volume of flights American operates: it has flown more than 1.9 million flights in that time, more than any other carrier. However, when viewed as a percentage of overall baggage handled, American still ranks at the bottom of the industry, as they have lost or damaged 0.93% of all bags in recent summers, the highest rate of any airline. That translates to one lost or damaged bag on every other American flight.

United Airlines ranks second, with a mishandled baggage rate of 0.79%, while Allegiant Airlines has the lowest rate at just 0.15%, less than a third of any other airline. Allegiant’s low rate can be largely attributed to how the airline operates: it allows passengers a single personal item for free but then charges for any additional baggage, including carry-ons. This can lead Allegiant passengers to pack extremely light and avoid checking bags, thereby reducing the number of bags the airline is responsible for transporting and making it easier to handle them properly on each flight.  

Delays on Popular Summer Flight Routes

Finally, we looked at the 25 most popular summer air travel routes in recent years based on total round-trip flights, based on total flights scheduled between airports over the last four summers, and found the percentage of flights delayed and canceled on each popular route. 

Flights between Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) are the most likely to experience delays, as 37.1% of flights from Atlanta to the home of Walt Disney World were delayed during the summer months from 2022 to 2025. There were no other popular routes where even one-third of flights were delayed.  

The summer flights with the lowest percentage of delays all originate at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) and fly to other Hawaiian airports. The route with the lowest overall delay rate is between Honolulu and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport (KOA) in Kaiminani, Hawaii. Less than 15% of flights from HNL to Lihue Airport (LIH) and HNL to Kahului Airport (OGG) were delayed as well. Those three inter-Hawaiian flights were the only popular routes across the country on which fewer than 15% of flights were delayed in the last four summers.

Full Summer Travel Data

Ways to Spend Less, Travel More This Summer

Getting the most out of summer travel starts before you ever book a flight. From timing your purchase to knowing which airport lounges are worth the splurge, smart moves made early can mean the difference between a stressful trip and a seamless one.

• Find lower fares before prices spike. Summer airfare tends to climb the closer you get to departure. Travelers who book flights in advance can save significantly, especially on popular routes that fill up fast during peak season.
• Turn layovers into part of the trip. A connection doesn't have to mean killing time at a gate. Knowing which layover airports offer the best experience can make the most of a long connection.

Methodology

Only In Your State collected data published by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics on the total number of scheduled flights, the number of canceled and delayed flights, the average departure delay length for all flights, and the percentage of total delay time categorized as being caused by carrier or late aircraft delays for major U.S. airlines. 

As of May 2026, Spirit Airlines no longer operates. As a result, Spirit was not included in the final reliability rankings for this upcoming summer travel season, but Spirit’s on-time and baggage handling data were included as part of the overall scoring and ranking system, as the airline was a significant part of the airline industry during the summers evaluated in this piece. Spirit’s data was also included in the full data tables above for completeness and transparency. 

The data encompassed all domestic flights operated by major U.S. airlines for the summer travel months of June through August each year from 2022 to 2025.

Data on the number of bags handled and mishandled by airlines was collected from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Air Carrier Mishandled Baggage reports. Data on mishandled luggage was also limited to the period from June through August each year from 2022 to 2025.

To create the overall best and worst airlines for holiday travel score, we took the collected data points for each airline and compared them using a dynamic formula that assigned each airline a score of 0-5 relative to every other airline. Those scores were then weighted to assign each airline a final value out of 50, with higher scores indicating airlines where holiday travel issues are more likely.

For each factor, a weight of 2.0 serves as the baseline; weights above 2.0 have a greater impact on an airline's total score, and those below 2.0 have a lesser impact. The weights for the individual metrics used are as follows:

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