America’s best and worst airlines for 2025 revealed in new rankings

America’s best and worst airlines for 2025 revealed in new rankings

Southwest Airlines has been topped the best airline in the nation, knocking Delta Air Lines off its perch for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, according to a new research.

The Wall Street Journal’s 18th annual airline scorecard cited Southwest’s industry-low variety of buyer complaints and tarmac delays, together with strong on-time arrival charges, in placing the Dallas-based service at the top of the checklist.

Budget service Allegiant Air completed second total, buoyed by the lowest cancellation charge among major airlines.

A Southwest Airlines jet on the tarmac. The service topped the Wall Street Journal’s 2025 airline rankings after main the {industry} in phrases of buyer complaints and tarmac-delay performance. Getty Images

The Las Vegas-based airline also ranked first for the fewest mishandled luggage and the lowest charge of passengers involuntarily bumped from flights.

Allegiant fell wanting the top spot largely because of weaker on-time performance and the next incidence of maximum delays. The airline says those delays mirror a deliberate strategy of holding flights quite than canceling them outright — a transfer it argues helps keep away from stranding passengers.

For the fifth straight 12 months, Allegiant logged the fewest mishandled luggage and the lowest charge of involuntary bumping, according to the Journal.

Delta, which topped the rankings last 12 months and had held first place for 4 consecutive years, slipped to 3rd in the 2025 standings.

The Atlanta-based airline was hit onerous by a wave of flight cancellations triggered by a large CrowdStrike software outage in July 2024 that crippled Microsoft Windows methods worldwide.

American Airlines tied for last place after posting the highest cancellation charge in the Journal’s 2025 scorecard. Getty Images

Because The Journal’s 2024 scorecard only included data by May of that 12 months, the disruption wasn’t mirrored in last 12 months’s rankings. The fallout — including a surge in buyer complaints — was captured in the 2025 outcomes.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian has said the CrowdStrike incident price the airline about $500 million.

Delta told The Journal it goals to reclaim the top spot next 12 months, saying: “Delta people set the bar high for airline performance as part of our drive for continuous improvement.”

Budget service Allegiant completed second total, buoyed by the lowest cancellation charge among major US airlines. AP

Alaska Airlines, which continued to put up strong reliability metrics even because it labored by the advanced integration of Hawaiian Airlines, completed in fourth place.

It ranked among the best in phrases of on-time arrivals and excessive delays, however slipped out of the top three spots because it didn’t dominate any single class and posted middling outcomes in baggage dealing with and buyer complaints.

Spirit Airlines completed fifth, marking the largest year-over-year enchancment among major carriers despite ongoing monetary turmoil.

The ultra-low-cost airline sharply decreased cancellations and boosted on-time performance, climbing a number of spots in each classes, though persistent complaints and operational inconsistencies stored it from cracking the top tier.

Sixth-place United Airlines delivered strong on-time and cancellation performance however was dragged down by the worst baggage-handling report of any airline in the rankings.

JetBlue Airways landed in seventh place because it continued a multi-year turnaround effort aimed toward restoring profitability.

“We’ve made meaningful progress on operational reliability following deliberate investments to address our heavy exposure to air traffic control staffing shortages and congestion in Northeast airspace,” a JetBlue spokesperson told The Post.

“Despite a challenging operating environment in 2025, we improved reliability across every category compared with 2024 and closed the gap with our competitors. As a result, our customer satisfaction scores have risen by double digits to an industry-leading position.”

Frontier shared last place in the rankings after touchdown close to the backside in 4 of seven performance classes. AP

The company rep said that JetBlue is “on track for even stronger results this year, but the final quarter was impacted by several external events, including the Airbus flight control computer recall affecting our all-Airbus fleet, the hurricane in Jamaica where we are the largest carrier, and the federal government shutdown.”

“We’re continuing to invest in reliability in 2026 as we work to further close the gap with the rest of the industry.”

Near the backside, American Airlines tied for last place after posting the highest cancellation charge among major US carriers.

The airline struggled across almost every metric, ranking no greater than sixth in any class as climate disruptions, staffing challenges and network complexity battered reliability throughout the 12 months.

American was tied for last with Frontier Airlines, which ranked at or close to the backside in 4 of the seven classes measured.

The Post has sought remark from the airlines.

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