Airline · UA · 2020–2025 BTS data
United Airlines
According to PlainFlights' airline traffic ranking (BTS On-Time Performance total flights), United Airlines ranks #5 of 18 tracked US carriers by total flights (most flights = #1).
Data updated 2026-06-13
- 81.3%
- On-time
- +2.3 pts
- vs US avg
- 76 min
- Delay when late
- 1.90%
- Cancelled
- #5 of 18
- Corpus placement
According to PlainFlights' airline traffic ranking (BTS On-Time Performance total flights), United Airlines ranks #5 of 18 tracked US carriers by total flights (most flights = #1). How we place airlines.
PlainFlights Reliability Score
Transparent derived index from BTS On-Time Performance data — not an official DOT/FAA rating.
- On-Time Rate D
81.3%
Share of flights arriving within the BTS 15-minute on-time threshold
- Delay Severity C-
76 min
Total arrival-delay minutes (all flights, including delays under 15 min) divided by the flights that arrived 15+ min late
- Cancellation Rate B+
1.90%
Share of scheduled flights cancelled
Weighted from on-time rate, delay minutes per late flight, and cancellation rate, each scored against the 18 currently tracked U.S. carriers with meaningful flight volume (percentile method). A dimension without a reported value drops out and its weight redistributes to the rest — missing data never deflates the score. See the full formula, weights, and live benchmark table.
BTS on-time dispatch plate
Carrier UA · United Airlines
ONTIME-SOLID · ABOVE-AVG · BOOK-MEGA · LATE-AC · CX-WARM · SPREAD-WIDE
- ONTIME-SOLID 81.3% on-time
- ABOVE-AVG +2.3 pts vs US
- BOOK-MEGA 3.7M flights
- LATE-AC Late aircraft lead
- CX-WARM 1.90% cancel
- SPREAD-WIDE 18-pt season gap
Nearest on-time peer: PSA Airlines (+ 0.0 pts)
Instrument codes from this carrier’s BTS on-time band, national gap, flight-book size, leading delay cause, cancel posture, and seasonal spread, not a booking recommendation.
On-time neighbourhood
Poles + nearest peers, not a full 18-carrier reprint
- EV
EV 89.8%
90
- MQ
MQ 82.5%
83
- UA
UA 81.3%
81
- OH
OH 81.3%
81
- AS
AS 80.8%
81
- WN
WN 80.4%
80
- F9
F9 73.7%
74
What this shows How UA sits among BTS on-time poles and nearest peers.
United Airlines - monthly on-time rate
Last 24 months reported; ranged 70%–88%
United Airlines - BTS Delay Tier Breakdown
How United Airlines flights distribute across federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics arrival-delay tiers. The on-time band uses the BTS 15-minute threshold; longer-delay tiers reflect arrival-time bins reported in the underlying database.
Delay Cause Breakdown
Top delay cause: Late Aircraft.
Source: U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, On-Time Performance
Seasonal on-time calendar
Multi-year average by calendar month for UA (BTS 2020–2025), not a single recent year.
-
Best month
October
86.3% on-time · ~55,593 flights/mo
-
Mid pack
January
82.3% on-time · ~49,270 flights/mo
-
Worst month
July
73.4% on-time · ~52,364 flights/mo
Spread 12.9 pts between October and July. The monthly chart above shows the recent path; this desk ranks the long-run calendar.
UA delay-share reading
Across 3,669,461 BTS-reported flights (2020–2025), United Airlines posts 81.3% on-time, 2.3 points above the 79% national flight-weighted average, with 687,142 delayed arrivals and 69,861 cancellations (1.90% of the book). When a flight runs late, the average delay is 75.7 minutes.
Nearest on-time peer
Closest BTS on-time neighbour for UA, not a universal board reprint.
PSA Airlines
+0.0 pts on-time vs UA
Field definitions: on-time performance explained.
What to do with the United Airlines on-time record
A single carrier's rate rarely settles a travel decision on its own -- use it as a starting point, not a verdict.
- See how United Airlines ranks against every other tracked carrier on on-time performance. Airline performance rankings
- Put United Airlines side by side against another airline on the same metrics. Compare airlines
- Late Aircraft is this airline's leading delay cause -- see how it's measured. Read methodology
Reflects BTS On-Time Performance data, 2020-2025; excludes cancelled and diverted flights.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates this airline's on-time performance and delay-cause breakdown, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.