Jet2 has been named the UK's most reliable airline for the second consecutive year, according to new rankings from air passenger rights company AirAdvisor. The analysis of nearly 1.5 million flights across 2023 and 2024 found that Jet2 had a cancellation rate of just 0.02 per cent in 2024, with 67.4 per cent of flights arriving on time.
EasyJet came second with a cancellation rate of 1.1 per cent, followed by Virgin Atlantic, which achieved an on-time rate of 70.5 per cent but a cancellation rate of 1.7 per cent. British Airways ranked fourth, with a 2.4 per cent cancellation rate across 354,000 flight operations.
At the bottom of the list, the recently-disbanded Eastern Airways recorded the highest cancellation rate at 12.2 per cent. AirAdvisor noted that the period from mid-December to early January is consistently among the most delay-prone times in aviation, due to weather, air traffic congestion, and strike action.
Anton Radchenko, aviation expert at AirAdvisor, commented: “As Christmas travel ramps up, reliability becomes more than just a number; it is the key to keeping holidays intact. What we’re seeing in this data is that size doesn’t always equal reliability. Jet2, for instance, operates fewer routes than easyJet or British Airways but achieves cancellation rates that are virtually zero.”
