Horizon Air

What the Data Says About Horizon Air

Across 200,419 flights reported to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics between 2021 and 2022, Horizon Air (QX) posted a 85.7% on-time rate, with 28,682 delayed departures and 3,608 cancellations. The carrier's average delay when flights run late is 59.0 minutes, and its cancellation rate of 1.80% sits alongside an overall delay rate of 14.3%. Those baseline numbers frame every comparison you can make with other carriers in the BTS dataset.

Digging into causes, Late Aircraft drives the biggest share of minutes lost, with Late Aircraft accounting for 40.1% of delay time and Carrier contributing 36.7%. Weather, often blamed informally, represents 5.5% of total delay minutes, while National Aviation System constraints such as air traffic control and airspace congestion make up 17.3%. Security delays remain the smallest bucket at 0.3%. Taken together, operational and scheduling factors outweigh weather as the dominant driver of Horizon Air delays.

Seasonality matters too. Recent monthly data shows January 2021 as the best period for Horizon Air with a 93% on-time rate, while December 2022 was the roughest at 70% on-time, a spread of 23 percentage points between best and worst month. For passengers choosing between carriers, the combination of a 85.7% on-time rate, 59.0-minute average delay, and 1.80% cancellation rate is the clearest summary of what to expect on Horizon Air flights based on BTS reporting.