Delta Gives Near-Seamless Performance in Thanksgiving Rush

The day before Thanksgiving is unsurprisingly one of the busiest days of the year for the U.S. aviation industry as millions of Americans fly to see friends and family across the country. Between November 17 and November 27, an estimated 29.9 million passengers took to the skies, with Wednesday 23 being the busiest day of the year so far for air travel.

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel periods for the commercial aviation sector in the U.S.

OAG, the world’s leading provider of digital flight information, intelligence and analytics for airports, airlines and travel tech companies, has released data showing which major US carriers and airports performed the most punctually.

OAG measures airline punctuality by assessing OTP (“on-time performance”). On November 23, they found that 86.8% of all flights at US airports took off and arrived on time – an improvement of 1.2% compared to the previous year. For the major US airlines, these figures were fairly static at 86.7% of flights on time, just 0.1% better than the year before.

Consequently, it transpires that fewer airlines than airports surpassed the 90% mark for OTP on the day before Thanksgiving In fact, only two carriers achieved this feat: United Airlines, which recorded 90.5% of flights on time, and Delta Air Lines, which blew out the competition with an OTP of 91.5% - a 1% increase on 2022.

During one of the airline industry’s busiest Thanksgiving periods ever, Delta Air Lines topped the rankings, capping off a particularly punctual year for the carrier. In October, OAG recorded that Delta achieved an OTP of 90.5%: a staggering 5% ahead of its closest competitor, United Airlines.

Delta Air Lines achieved the highest OTP in October, with equal success during the Thanksgiving rush

American Airlines, however, amidst the chaos of flight attendant strikes and ongoing union conflict, lost out to its two main rivals on Thanksgiving, recording a below-average OTP score of 84.4%.

This comes amidst the threat of a staff walkout at the world’s biggest airline. The Association of Profressional Flight Attendants (AFPA), which represents more than 25,000 of AA flight attendants, is anxiously awaiting a response from the National Mediation Board (NMB) to authorise strike action, having submitted a formal request on Monday 20 November.

American Airlines flight attendants picketed on 16 November, only a couple of days before the Thanksgiving rush

Unlike American Airlines and Southwest, Delta has been spared the threat of strike action this year, having increased salaries for its flight attendants back in February. The airline is the only major US carrier whose cabin crew are not represented by a union.