American Airlines moved ahead of several of its major competitors in on-time arrival rankings in 2021, despite a year of turbulence as the Fort Worth-based carrier and the rest of the aviation industry tried to find smoother skies in the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines fell below its major competitors at American, United and Delta as it failed to build on several years of improving performance, according to 2021 Punctuality League report from global aviation data company OAG.
“Generally, performance improved across all carriers and we can all sit here and say it was because there were fewer flights,” OAG senior analyst John Grant said. “But they still had the challenges of not having enough available people and bringing back their networks from 2020.”
