Methodology
Flight cancellations in 2024
China, Canada, and the US lead the world in flight cancellations
Among the top ten countries with the highest flight volumes during the observed period, China and Canada had the highest cancellation rates, at around 5% and 3.4% respectively. In contrast, Spain and India had the lowest cancellation rates, at around 0.8% and 1.1% respectively.Out of over 5 million flights in the US, around 140,000 were canceled during the observed period. This leaves the US flight cancellation rate for 2024 at 2.76%. The US had the third-highest cancellation rate among the ten countries considered.
The rate of canceled flights dropped sharply in July 2024
The percentage of canceled flights across all included countries ranged from 1.5% to 3.2% over the observed months (March to September 2024). Flight cancellation percentages started high at around 3%, peaking at 3.2% in June. There was then a sharp decrease to 2.2% in July, followed by a further decrease to 1.5% in August, and then a plateau.
Flight delays in 2024
Around 37% of flights experienced a minor or major delay
Approximately 63% of all flights experienced no delay during the period studied. The majority of delays were minor, with most (around 18-22% across all months) lasting from five to 30 minutes. An additional 10-11% of flights experienced a very short delay of up to five minutes. Major delays from 30 minutes to three hours ranged between 4-10% across months, with the highest number occurring in July. Delays of more than three hours remained low, at less than 0.15% across all months.This year performed relatively on par with last year in terms of the rate of flights with no delays and an on-time arrival. However, there was an increase in the percentage of flights with significant delays. This was mainly due to July’s poor on-time performance: in 2024, July had the lowest percentage of no-delay flights (around 57%), and by far the highest percentage of majorly delayed flights (10.3%).
Crowdstrike outage likely caused the spike in major delays in July of 2024
On July 19th, 2024, a failed software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike affected 8.5 million computers running Windows around the world, causing them to crash and show a critical system error. While the meltdown lasted only a few days, the repercussions were severe, with insurers estimating that it would cost Fortune 500 companies around $5.4 billion in damages. This incident caused increased delays and other flight interruptions in July 2024. Other factors, including planned strike action at London Gatwick airport, strikes at Italian airports, and the threat of strike action at US airports may have had some role to play in the increased flight delays seen in July. As one of the busiest periods for air traffic during the summer holiday season, this caused significant disruption.
The US and Brazil had the highest rates of on-time flights, while Germany and Italy experienced more delays
Of the top 10 countries with the highest flight volumes during the observed period, the US and Brazil stand out with the highest rates of on-time flights. Around 70% of US flights and 72% of Brazilian flights were on time during this period. In contrast, just 42% of German flights and 49% of Italian flights were on time. Brazil and Japan had the lowest rates of major flight delays, at 2.6% and 3.5% respectively. On the other hand, flights departing from Germany (9.7%) and Italy (10.3%) had the highest rates of major delays.