After years of trailing near the bottom, Air Canada has completed a remarkable turnaround—ranking as the most punctual airline in North America for the second month in a row, according to Cirium Aviation Analytics.
Once a regular fixture at the lower end of on-time performance charts, Canada’s largest airline topped Cirium’s rankings in both May and June 2025. The Montreal-based carrier, which operates the majority of its flights out of Toronto Pearson Airport, landed 77.15 per cent of its 33,473 June flights on time. That follows a strong performance in May, when 79.06 per cent of its 32,723 flights arrived as scheduled.
Cirium defines an “on-time” flight as one that lands within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. The analytics firm tracks data for the 10 largest airlines in the U.S. and Canada, releasing monthly performance rankings.
Florida-based Spirit Airlines took second place in June with a 75.77 per cent on-time rate out of nearly 20,000 flights. Delta Air Lines, historically a leader in punctuality, followed closely behind in third, with 75.62 per cent of its 158,294 flights arriving on time.
Canada’s second-largest carrier, Calgary-based WestJet, finished seventh in June with a 71.73 per cent on-time rate across 18,190 flights. Though slightly down from May’s 76.73 per cent, WestJet still showed continued improvement from its 10th-place finish in February.
The overall on-time performance across the 10 major North American airlines dropped slightly in June to 73.3 per cent, compared to 76.37 per cent in May, based on more than 782,000 combined flights.
Just months ago, in February 2025, Air Canada ranked ninth with a 59.97 per cent on-time rate, and WestJet landed in last place. By April, both airlines had significantly improved: WestJet came in fifth with 82.36 per cent on-time arrivals, and Air Canada finished seventh with 79.8 per cent.
Cirium tracks data monthly for roughly 20 carriers but publicly ranks only the top 10 for North America. Notably, Mexican carriers like Aeromexico are not included in the North American rankings despite Mexico’s geographic location, as they are grouped under Latin America in Cirium’s reporting system.
While Air Canada’s steady climb from laggard to leader may surprise many travelers, the data suggests a sustained effort in performance improvements—a welcome change for passengers and industry watchers alike.