For airline passengers, there is nothing more frustrating than flight delays or cancellations. A recent Travelperk analysis of flight departures from March 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024 nominated China and Canada as countries with the highest cancellation rates, at around 5% and 3.4% respectively.
The researchers saw ten countries: the United States, China, India, Spain, the UK, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Canada. In the US, there was a fight of over 5 million people over the period, of which around 140,000 were cancelled. This gave the US a flight cancellation rate of 2.76% in 2024.
In contrast, Spain and India had the lowest rates at around 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively.
Currently, a new survey conducted by Cirium's temporal performance report in February 2025 highlights the exceptional punctuality of several global airlines.
Overall, the global aviation industry saw a 18% drop in flight cancellations last month.
A major boost for Africa, FlySafair achieved 95.82% on-time performance (OTP) and highlighted its commitment to reliability.
South African airlines were the only representatives of the continent in these rankings.
The company recorded two cancellations that month despite operating in a challenging environment where air traffic controllers and navigation support are lacking at some airports.
The top European Airlines in the OTP rankings were Iberia (91.25%) and British Airways (86.89%).
FlySafair is an international, low-cost airline based in Johannesburg, flying to 14 Saharian African destinations.
The company was founded in August 2013, with its first flight on October 16, 2014.
One passenger on the flight last April served as a lucky escape after the plane lost its left main landing equipment.
The FlySafair Boeing 737-800 was still able to land safely and was not injured to either the crew or passengers.
