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FACING last-minute flight cancellations can be very frustrating for travelers, whether they are going on vacation, returning home, traveling for business, or attending important events. Often, flight cancellations are due to unsafe flight conditions, such as dangerous weather, security issues, or technical problems with the aircraft.
However, some cancellations are due to airline weaknesses such as staff shortages, scheduling errors or maintenance delays that could have been managed with better planning.
Citing Cirium data, here are the top 15 airlines with the highest flight cancellation rates and their total number of flights in 2024: (1). Dana Air: 33.9% out of 2,396 flights, (2). Lion Air: 16.7% out of 125,550 flights, (3). Wings Air: 16.3% of 62,176 flights (4). Air Austral: 14.9% of 7,628 flights (5). Chongqing Airlines: 14.8% of 57,868 flights (6). Super Air Jet: 14.7% of 89,453 flights (7). Air Seychelles: 10.1% of 16,069 flights (8). Batik Air: 9.4% of 97,320 flights (9). China Express Airlines: 7.7% of 131,928 flights (10). Winair: 6.3% out of 25,802 flights, (11). Cape Air: 6.1% of 83,101 flights (12). Kenya Airways: 4.9% of 46,578 flights (13). Ural Airlines: 4.8% of 61,021 flights (14). Shenzhen Airlines: 4.6% of 277,688 flights (15). Air China: 4.1% out of 612,920 flights.
Dana Air had the highest cancellation rate among the airlines tracked by Cirium, largely due to its suspension by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority following a runway incident in April 2024.
As of January 2025, the airline was still not operating, pending a safety and financial audit. Most of the airlines with the highest cancellation rates were based in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa regions, with only one North American airline (Cape Air) and one European airline (Ural Airlines) on the list.
In 2024, Ural Airlines was added to the European Union sanctions list for allegedly supporting Russia’s military operations in Ukraine by transporting military personnel and setting up a special ticketing system with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In addition, smaller airlines connecting remote areas or islands, such as Air Seychelles, Winair (Caribbean), Air Austral (Réunion and Indian Ocean) and Cape Air (US and Caribbean), often face higher cancellation rates due to challenges related to weather, infrastructure and operational complexity.
Indonesian airlines such as Lion Air, Wings Air and Batik Air also face similar challenges of high cancellation rates due to frequent extreme weather conditions such as the rainy season and natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions. [sources/photo special]
