Scorecard: Delta Ranked No. 1 US Airline by Wall Street Journal

After a solid year of recovery and operational performance led by its employees, Delta Air Lines was named the Top U.S. Airline of 2021 by the Wall Street Journal in its annual airline scorecard rankings released Friday.

The Journal tracks seven important operations and customer metrics among nine U.S. airlines; after coming in second in 2020, Delta’s network performed No. 1 last year. Delta was also the top airline in the 2019 Middle Seat rankings by WSJ.

"As we climbed together to rebuild the airline in 2021, we stayed true to our brand promises of safety, reliability and cleanliness," said John Laughter, E.V.P. and Chief of Operations. "This achievement recognizes the incredible effort by our people to safely deliver reliable, on-time service while showing our customers the Delta Difference."

WSJ ranked airlines by objective metrics from industry performance and U.S. Department of Transportation data.

Delta ranked No. 1 overall and in five of the seven categories, including on-time arrivals, completion factor, preventing extreme delays and involuntary bumping, and lowest U.S. Department of Transportation complaints.

The full story and scorecard can be viewed on the Wall Street Journal website.

The Journal reported Delta’s network completion factor was ranked first among the nine airlines evaluated, canceling just .6% of all scheduled flights.

Delta Connection (No. 1 among regional competitors) contributed strongly to the airline’s performance throughout the year, setting a record with 218 days without a cancellation.

Delta mainline led its closest competitor in 2021 by nearly a full percentage point on completion factor, five points in on-time arrivals (AO), and nearly four points ahead in on-time departures (DO).