Since November of last year, low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has taken on a new distinction in the air travel industry, according to data released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics: being on time more than almost every major airline out there, including both American Airlines and United Airlines.
Move over United and American – Spirit Airlines is taking your place in the aviation industry bit by bit. The latest is an uptick on the percentage of Spirit’s on-time flights, putting the low-cost carrier in second place only to Delta.
According to numbers released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, airlines-now-delivers-more-flights-on-time-than-american-or-united/#1ff6ee9f758d” target=”_blank”>Forbes reported, Spirit’s percentage of on-time flights is currently at 89.75 percent. Delta is still top at 93.68 percent. airlines-447/” target=”_blank”>Hawaiian Airlines slipped just below the two at 89.31. American and United took fourth and fifth place, at 88.8 percent and 88.6 percent respectively.
This is a welcome ranking for Spirit, which has historically had subpar ratings for on-time flights. In 2016, the carrier ranked fifth place, and the year before that, it was second to last, delivering only about 75 percent of flights on time. To go along with the new higher ratings, Spirit has also seen complaint rates falling. In 2016, the airline had 160 complaints, and last year, only 62 – which is also substantially less than American and United, which had 161 and 104 complaints about the airline respectively.
Out of the 12 airlines ranked in the data, only one had less than 80 percent of its flights arrive on time: Virgin America, coming in at about 77 percent.