U.S. Department of Transportation Report Exposes Underperformance in Airlines

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently unveiled its Air Travel Consumer Report for August, divulging a plethora of statistics about operational aspects such as airline delays, cancellations, mishandled luggage, and other performance metrics for June and the first half of 2025. Although private data sources like Cirium can provide a snapshot of recent performance, this government report gives detailed insights into each airline’s efficiency by airport and specific time slots.

A far more comprehensive view of airline operations is made available through this data. Hawaiian, Spirit, Delta, Alaska, Southwest, and United were at the forefront of punctuality in June. There was barely a difference seen in the ranking for the first half of 2025, with JetBlue, Allegiant, American and Frontier pulling up the rear.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Although Southwest and Spirit saw an improvement in their year-over-year performance, Delta’s punctuality suffered a significant decline. In an interesting turn, their performance improved past the covered report period in August.

In terms of flight completions, Allegiant, Hawaiian, Southwest, and Alaska came out on top. They kept their cancellation rates below the 1% threshold for the first half of 2025. However, American Airlines lagged far behind with an unimpressive cancellation rate of 2.69% – the industry’s worst.

Delta’s reliability took a substantial hit, with the airline’s cancellation rate increasing from 0.65% in the first half of 2024 to 1.22% in the same period of 2025. Bags were not immune to this downward trend, with American Airlines taking the lead in the race for the most mishandled luggage.

Southwest Airlines, although slow to deliver bags to the carousel, managed to mishandle fewer than most airlines, save for JetBlue and Allegiant. This could probably be attributed to Allegiant’s policy of not transferring bags between airlines or aircraft.

While American struggled with bag handling, they were recognized for a slight improvement. However, the same couldn’t be said for their passenger management record. In the first half of 2025, American involuntarily bumped an unfortunate 7,163 passengers – a significant uptick from the previous year.

Delta stands as a contrast, employing volunteerism rather than force. The airline managed to avoid involuntarily denying boarding to any passenger during the same period. They have been successful in encouraging passengers to take later flights with enticing compensation offers.

However, the carrot approach wasn’t universally lauded by Delta’s clientele. In fact, the Department of Transportation report showed a barrage of complaints against the airline in June, placing it at the dubious honor of being the most complained about airline. The airline also received the most civil rights complaints during the same month.

The report didn’t solely focus on US airlines; foreign carriers also received their share of consumer wrath. The most complaints were aimed at Turkish and Qatar Airlines, followed by Air France and Lufthansa. The most criticized travel agency was Expedia, proving that criticism is not limited to airlines alone.

Timing appears to play a pivotal role in customer satisfaction. The report revealed that early morning flights are more likely to depart on-time, with mid-80% punctuality rates observed between 6:00 and 9:00 AM. Unfortunately, this punctuality dwindles as the day progresses, reaching as low as 50-60% post 5 PM.

If the report is to be believed, travelers should brace themselves for worse conditions for evening flights. Lo and behold, US airlines have been lobbying to reduce or entirely do away with reporting and consumer protection obligations like the Air Travel Consumer Report.

Regardless of lobbying efforts, it’s undeniably in the consumer’s best interest to have this information available. With data-based decision making becoming increasingly crucial, reports like this help shed light on transportation transparency, fair practice, and prevention of deceptive behavior, offering precious insights for travelers.