No tool measures travel pain better than the iPhone travel app Flighty. And there was plenty of pain in 2025.
Flighty helped me and my fellow travelers on more than 22 million flights (and counting) in 2025 get more information about their flights – including up-to-the-second updates on delays and cancellations that come in handy on your travel days … often arriving long before the airline itself sends an alert. That makes Flighty extremely qualified to crunch the numbers on the best and the worst from a year in travel, including the worst U.S. airlines for delays and just how many flights were delayed while sitting on the tarmac.
Flighty gives every user their own a Spotify-esque personal Flighty Passport every year, too. But this year, they crunched all the numbers from that treasure trove of 22 million flights' worth of data and churned out two very interesting statistics:
- Frontier Airlines was the most delayed airline (by far) in the U.S. this year – but not the worst in the world
- Three in 10 flights are delayed after pushing back from the gate only to sit on the runway or tarmac
The second data point is something I've never seen calculated before, but Flighty has the data to do it. That number – 30% of flights have some sort of ground delays after you push back from the gate or before you arrive – is staggering, indicative of what I would argue is the absolute worst kind of delay in the flying experience. No wonder Flighty calls this new statistic “Get Me Off This Plane!”
The Most Delayed Airlines in 2025
Worldwide, Ryanair, Air France, and easyJet were the three worst offenders for delayed flights in 2025, all with 29% of their flights in 2025 delayed to date. A U.S. airline didn't crack the top three, but did place fourth.
The most delayed airlines in the U.S. by percentage flights delayed were:
- Frontier Airlines – 28%
- JetBlue Airways – 25%
- Southwest Airlines – 25%
- American Airlines – 24%
- Alaska Airlines – 23%
JetBlue and Southwest are part of a four-way tie for seventh most delayed airlines in the world at 25%, alongside KLM and Air Canada.
Get Me Off This Plane!
Three of every 10 flights that operate worldwide include some sort of wait or delay in the worst way: On the tarmac while the boarding door is closed.
Is there a more claustrophobic feeling than being stuck on the runway – either pre or post-flight? It's the worst delay possible, and the folks at Flighty have put a number on that pain.
Three in ten flights. Ouch.
These delays can be due tarmac congestion, taxiing, unavailable gates, holding patterns and other reasons. But no matter the reason, it's all pain.
I've never seen this statistic presented before, so a huge shoutout to the folks at Flighty for putting it together. Regular delays and cancellation data can be found everywhere, but this “Get Me Off This Plane” data is fascinating.
