Mesa Airlines

What the Data Says About Mesa Airlines

Across 410,786 flights reported to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics between 2020 and 2022, Mesa Airlines (YV) posted a 83.1% on-time rate, with 69,562 delayed departures and 16,878 cancellations. The carrier's average delay when flights run late is 89.3 minutes, and its cancellation rate of 4.11% sits alongside an overall delay rate of 16.9%. Those baseline numbers frame every comparison you can make with other carriers in the BTS dataset.

Digging into causes, Carrier drives the biggest share of minutes lost, with Carrier accounting for 40.0% of delay time and Late Aircraft contributing 35.0%. Weather — often blamed informally — represents 9.4% of total delay minutes, while National Aviation System constraints such as air traffic control and airspace congestion make up 15.6%. Security delays remain the smallest bucket at 0.1%. Taken together, operational and scheduling factors outweigh weather as the dominant driver of Mesa Airlines delays.

Seasonality matters too. Recent monthly data shows January 2021 as the best period for Mesa Airlines with a 88% on-time rate, while July 2021 was the roughest at 69% on-time — a spread of 20 percentage points between best and worst month. For passengers choosing between carriers, the combination of a 83.1% on-time rate, 89.3-minute average delay, and 4.11% cancellation rate is the clearest summary of what to expect on Mesa Airlines flights based on BTS reporting.