Alaska Airlines was the most on-time carrier in North America in July in a month that saw mass flight delays due to the fallout from the CrowdStrike IT outage.
The Seattle-based carrier had an on time percentage of 77.51 percent, according to data shared with Travel + Leisure from aviation analytics company Cirium. It was a slight decline from Alaska’s on time percentage in June of 77.79 percent.
United Airlines came in second in North America with an on time percentage of 73.12 percent (still less than its 77.44 percent on time rate from June). And Delta Air Lines, which took the top spot in June with more than 80 percent of flights on time, dropped to third in July with an on time percentage of just 72.36 percent.
Delta’s decline came as Cirium said the airline was forced to cancel nearly 6,500 flights following the CrowdStrike IT meltdown. The airline has since agreed to reimburse travelers who were forced to book a flight on a different airline as well as for rental car or hotel expenses.
Overall, North America had the highest number of flight cancellations in the world for July with a 98 percent increase in issues compared to the previous month. In all, there were 23,393 canceled flights across the continent, compared to just 11,806 in June.
“The CrowdStrike IT outage caused severe disruption for major airlines in the United States,” Cirium wrote in its report. “The outage had varied impact across the region but undoubtedly caused declines in the on-time performance scores for most airlines and airports in the region while rearranging the leaderboard in July.”
JetBlue took the fourth place slot with an on time percentage of 69.57, while Southwest came in fifth with an on time percentage of 69.54.
Globally, Saudia was the highest performing airline with an 88.15 percent on time rate. The Saudi Arabian airline retained its top ranking from June. Brazilian airline Azul took the second spot with an on time percentage of 85.2, while Chilean carrier LATAM Airlines came in third with an on time percentage of 84.65.
No U.S. carriers cracked the worldwide top 10 list of on time airlines.