FlyerIntel Research
Who Actually Flies Your Mainline Ticket
A large share of flights sold under a major airline brand are operated by a different company entirely — and they do not perform the same way.
Published August 30, 2026 · Source period July 2023 – June 2026
Summary
Regional carriers operated 24.6% of the flights in this analysis, almost all of them sold to passengers under a mainline brand. Their punctuality is not the problem: regionals arrived on time 80.5% of the time against 78.2% for mainline carriers. Cancellations are. Regional carriers cancelled 2.06% of their flights against 1.29% for mainline — 1.6 times the rate. If your flight is going to fail outright rather than merely run late, the aircraft is disproportionately likely to be a regional jet.
Key findings
- Regional carriers flew 24.6% of all flights analysed.
- Regionals were slightly more punctual than mainline: 80.5% on time against 78.2%.
- Regionals cancelled 1.6× as often: 2.06% against 1.29%.
- PSA Airlines had the highest cancellation rate of any carrier measured, at 3.33%.
- The brand on your ticket does not tell you which of these operated your flight.
Why the distinction matters
When you book a flight marketed as Delta, American or United, there is a good chance it is operated by a separate company — Endeavor, SkyWest, Republic, Envoy, PSA — under a capacity purchase agreement. The livery matches, the flight number is the mainline brand’s, and the ticket says nothing obvious. The US DOT records these flights under the carrier that actually operated them, which is why they can be measured separately at all. The pattern below is consistent: regional operations are run tightly enough to be punctual, but they have thinner reserves — fewer spare aircraft, fewer standby crews, smaller stations — so when something goes wrong the flight is cancelled rather than delayed.
Regional carriers
| Carrier | Operates for | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Severe delays |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines | 2,356,571 | 80.5% | 1.33% | 7.9% |
| Republic Airways | Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines | 972,199 | 82.5% | 3.06% | 6.6% |
| Envoy Air | American Airlines | 857,098 | 80.0% | 1.82% | 6.6% |
| PSA Airlines | American Airlines | 696,090 | 76.2% | 3.33% | 10.1% |
| Endeavor Air | Delta Air Lines | 304,230 | 85.1% | 2.30% | 6.0% |
Partnerships are the brands each carrier is publicly contracted to operate for; the DOT data does not record which brand sold any individual flight.
Mainline carriers
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Severe delays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,246,645 | 78.5% | 0.85% | 5.9% |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,052,362 | 82.3% | 1.12% | 6.2% |
| American Airlines | 2,930,179 | 75.1% | 1.74% | 9.8% |
| United Airlines | 2,344,539 | 79.9% | 1.19% | 7.4% |
| Alaska Airlines | 782,050 | 78.9% | 1.30% | 5.0% |
| JetBlue | 722,180 | 72.8% | 1.95% | 11.5% |
| Spirit Airlines | 635,598 | 75.5% | 2.06% | 9.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 608,753 | 72.0% | 2.05% | 11.4% |
| Allegiant Air | 368,181 | 75.9% | 0.95% | 9.3% |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 199,679 | 83.7% | 1.00% | 2.9% |
Cancellation rate by carrier
What to do with this
Before booking, check the aircraft type on the itinerary. A regional jet on a route that also offers a mainline narrowbody is a meaningfully higher cancellation risk for the same journey, and that risk is not reflected in the price or in the brand on the ticket. It matters most on the last flight of the day and on the outbound leg of a short trip, where a cancellation has nowhere to be rebooked to.
Methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 21,076,354 individual flight records in the US Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance dataset, covering July 2023 through June 2026. Following BTS methodology, a flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after its scheduled arrival time. Cancelled and diverted flights have no arrival time and are excluded from on-time rates rather than counted as late; cancellation rates are reported separately. Full definitions are published at /methodology/. Carriers are classified as regional where they operate under capacity purchase agreements for one or more mainline brands. Group figures are flight-weighted so that a small carrier cannot distort the comparison.
Limitations
The source dataset covers scheduled domestic flights operated by carriers above the DOT reporting threshold; smaller carriers and international flights are not included. Flights sold under a mainline brand but flown by a regional carrier are attributed to the operating carrier, which is how the DOT records them. Past performance describes what has happened and is not a prediction about any individual flight. The DOT data records the operating carrier but not the brand a ticket was sold under, so the proportion of regional flying attributable to each mainline brand cannot be measured here. Regional carriers are also assigned different route types than mainline — typically shorter, thinner routes into smaller airports — so some of the difference reflects the flying rather than the operator.
Sources
- FlyerIntel analysis — FlyerIntel · source
- Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance — US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics · source
Full FlyerIntel methodology · Report a problem with this analysis
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