FlyerIntel Research
Why Airlines Cancel Flights
Every covered carrier's cancellations, split by the four cause codes airlines file with the DOT.
Published September 14, 2026 · Source period July 2023 – June 2026
Summary
Across 15 US airlines with at least 500 coded cancellations to analyze, 24.6% of coded cancellations were attributed to the carrier itself, 61.1% to extreme weather, 14.3% to the wider air traffic system, and 0.0% to security — extreme weather the single largest share network-wide. Hawaiian Airlines attributes the largest share of its own coded cancellations to itself, 82.8%, and SkyWest Airlines the smallest, 2.5% — yet Hawaiian Airlines's overall cancellation rate, 1.00%, is no higher than SkyWest Airlines's 1.33%, which is why this report does not rank carriers by these shares.
Key findings
- Network-wide, 61.1% of coded cancellations were attributed to extreme weather, the largest of the four DOT cause codes.
- 15 airlines clear the site's 500-coded-cancellation floor, together accounting for 311,377 coded cancellations.
- Hawaiian Airlines attributes the largest share of its own cancellations to itself, 82.8%; SkyWest Airlines attributes the smallest, 2.5%.
- Hawaiian Airlines's overall cancellation rate is 1.00% and SkyWest Airlines's is 1.33% — self-attribution tracks filing convention, not how often a carrier actually cancels.
Cancellation causes by airline
| Airline | Coded cancellations | Carrier-caused % | Weather % | Air traffic system % | Security % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 10,189 | 68.7% | 28.7% | 2.7% | 0.0% |
| Allegiant Air | 3,508 | 31.2% | 56.0% | 12.7% | 0.1% |
| American Airlines | 51,094 | 9.9% | 85.6% | 4.5% | 0.0% |
| Delta Air Lines | 34,278 | 55.8% | 39.7% | 4.3% | 0.2% |
| Endeavor Air | 6,990 | 19.8% | 29.3% | 50.9% | 0.0% |
| Envoy Air | 15,561 | 5.0% | 68.8% | 26.3% | 0.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 12,469 | 49.0% | 51.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 1,994 | 82.8% | 11.7% | 5.5% | 0.0% |
| JetBlue | 14,056 | 22.6% | 40.3% | 37.2% | 0.0% |
| PSA Airlines | 23,177 | 14.6% | 77.8% | 7.3% | 0.2% |
| Republic Airways | 29,760 | 11.2% | 49.3% | 39.4% | 0.0% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 31,266 | 2.5% | 83.9% | 13.5% | 0.0% |
| Southwest Airlines | 36,010 | 21.0% | 64.9% | 14.0% | 0.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 13,092 | 24.0% | 67.9% | 8.0% | 0.1% |
| United Airlines | 27,933 | 46.1% | 42.3% | 11.6% | 0.0% |
Airlines are listed alphabetically, not ranked by these shares: a cancellation code is the reason the operating carrier filed, and carriers differ in filing convention as much as in what actually happened, so ordering by these percentages would read as a fault comparison the codes cannot support. Only carriers with at least 500 coded cancellations are shown, the same floor every cause-split section on the site uses.
Why coded cancellations happen, network-wide
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/. Cancellation causes follow BTS's four-code system — Air Carrier, Extreme Weather, National Aviation System, and Security — filed by the operating carrier for every cancelled flight. A carrier's cause split is shown only above 500 coded cancellations, the same floor every cancellation-cause section on the site uses, and the percentages shown are identical to what that carrier's own page reports.
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. A cancellation code is the reason the operating carrier filed, not an adjudication of fault, and carriers demonstrably file differently from one another — across the carriers analyzed here, the one attributing the most of its own cancelling to itself in fact cancels no more often than the one attributing the least, the wrong direction for a fault ranking. That is why airlines are listed alphabetically rather than ranked by any of these shares, and why no figure in this report compares one carrier's codes with another's as a measure of quality.
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