SkyWest Airlines

What the Data Says About SkyWest Airlines

Across 4,343,656 flights reported to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics between 2020 and 2025, SkyWest Airlines (OO) posted a 83.6% on-time rate, with 712,762 delayed departures and 80,320 cancellations. The carrier's average delay when flights run late is 86.8 minutes, and its cancellation rate of 1.85% sits alongside an overall delay rate of 16.4%. 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 53.7% of delay time and Late Aircraft contributing 21.1%. Weather — often blamed informally — represents 14.3% of total delay minutes, while National Aviation System constraints such as air traffic control and airspace congestion make up 10.7%. Security delays remain the smallest bucket at 0.2%. Taken together, operational and scheduling factors outweigh weather as the dominant driver of SkyWest Airlines delays.

Seasonality matters too. Recent monthly data shows October 2024 as the best period for SkyWest Airlines with a 86% on-time rate, while December 2025 was the roughest at 74% on-time — a spread of 12 percentage points between best and worst month. For passengers choosing between carriers, the combination of a 83.6% on-time rate, 86.8-minute average delay, and 1.85% cancellation rate is the clearest summary of what to expect on SkyWest Airlines flights based on BTS reporting.