Canadian airlines & Toronto Pearson improve on-time performance

Canadian airlines, as well as Toronto Pearson airport (YYZ), improved their on-time performance during the spring travel season, according to airline data company Cirium.  

As of June 2024, major Canadian carriers had comparatively high completion rates, Cirium reported Friday (June 28).  

Completion factor measures the number of flights flown compared to those scheduled.

Porter Airlines had a 99.52 per cent completion factor, Flair Airlines at 99.27 per cent, WestJet at 98.58 per cent, and Air Canada posted 97 per cent — with the latter operating a significantly higher number of flights than its competitors.

Among North American airlines, WestJet ranked third, and Air Canada sixth, for on-time performance in May 2024.

Pearson’s improved punctuality

Toronto Pearson airport, too, is showing improved departure performance in 2024 to date, including this year’s winter months, Cirium says.

Pearson’s D14% — the percentage of flights scheduled that departed within 14:59 of the scheduled departure time — consistently averaged around 70 per cent in the first half of 2024 and into late June 2024. (To compare, last June, Pearson’s D14% was around 59 per cent).

In May of this year, Pearson had 70.96 per cent of its flights depart on time, on around 14,500 flights, Cirium reports.

By way of comparison, the best performing U.S. airport in May 2024 was Salt Lake City, with 82.69 per cent of flights departing on-time departure on around 10,000 flights, and the best performing Canadian airport, Calgary International Airport, had a D14 per cent of 77.07 per cent on around 6,000 flights.

It’s a welcome change at Canada’s largest airport. In the early days of the pandemic, when inefficiencies plagued air travel, Toronto Pearson consistently ranked low in on-time performance. 

At one point, during the summer of 2022, YYZ claimed the top spot for flight delays worldwide, according to FlightAware.

The high completion rates at airlines, combined with Pearson’s newfound punctuality, bodes well for the summer 2024 season.

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