2025 will mark five years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada and since that time airline companies have struggled to get back to normal. A halt to domestic and world travel threw airlines into turmoil through the pandemic, but when things began to open back up there was a huge demand by customers to go back traveling, prompting service issues, flight delays, and flight cancelations as airlines struggled to meet the demand. Some airlines recovered quickly, while others took much longer to smooth out service bumps.
An aviation data company called Cirium ranks airlines and airports in terms of punctuality and reliability and Canadian airline companies did not rank high. They base success on how often flights arrived within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival times. Air Canada, WestJet, and Frontier, a low cost US airline, were all near the bottom of the list with on-time ratings below 72 per cent. Weather issues and technology glitches were cited as a couple of the reasons why some airlines struggled in 2024.
When it comes to the most punctual airlines, Aeromexico was ranked number one worldwide with a 87 per cent of arrivals on time. Saudia airlines from Saudia Arabia came in second on the punctuality list while Delta Airlines was third. Rounding out the top five was LATAM Airlines and Qatar Airways.
Cirium also ranked world airports on punctuality and Canadian airports did not make the top ten, however four US airports made the list, one of which is Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport, which now has direct flights to and from Regina International Airport. The most punctual airport in the world for 2024 was King Khalid International Airport in Saudia Arabia followed by Jorge Chavez International Airport in Peru and Benito Juarez International in Mexico.
Closer to home, 2024 was an overall good year for the Regina International Airport thanks to announcements like frequent non-stop flights to both Minneapolis and Denver, which are two major US hubs. According to the airport, passenger numbers through Regina are reaching pre-pandemic numbers.
