Worst Airlines in the US, Ranked (2026)

Frontier Airlines is the worst airline in the US in 2026. On US Department of Transportation data for the first half of the year, it drew 21.07 complaints per 100,000 passengers, more than double any other airline still flying, and it had the highest rates of both involuntary bumping and mishandled wheelchairs.

American Airlines and JetBlue take second and third. American cancelled a larger share of its flights than any other US airline, and JetBlue arrived late more often than any of them.

The ranking uses six measures DOT publishes for every large US airline: on-time arrivals, cancellations, complaints, mishandled bags, involuntary bumping and mishandled wheelchairs. The figures cover January to June 2026, the latest six months DOT had published as of September 2026.

Want the other end of the table? Our ranking of the best airlines to fly in the US covers the carriers that get it right.

Rank (1 = worst)	Airline	On-time arrivals	Flights cancelled	Complaints per 100,000 passengers	Weakest area
1	Frontier Airlines	72.06%	1.99%	21.07	Complaints, bumping, wheelchairs (worst on all three)
2	American Airlines	74.38%	3.32%	8.93	Cancellations (worst)
3	JetBlue Airways	71.02%	2.86%	9.92	On-time arrivals (worst)
4	United Airlines	77.60%	1.76%	5.56	Mishandled bags (worst)
5	Alaska Airlines	80.51%	1.24%	3.84	Bags, bumping, wheelchairs
6	Delta Air Lines	79.33%	2.35%	4.94	Cancellations
7	Southwest Airlines	74.76%	1.05%	1.53	On-time arrivals
8	Allegiant Air	72.71%	0.90%	4.02	On-time arrivals
–	All DOT-graded airlines	76.14%	2.23%	6.49	–

January to June 2026. Source: US Department of Transportation, Air Travel Consumer Report, August 2026. On-time and cancellation figures cover each airline’s full branded network, including regional partners. Complaints per 100,000 passengers is AeroCorner’s calculation: DOT complaint cases divided by each airline’s domestic passengers across its branded network.

How this ranking works

Each airline is ranked on six measures from the US Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report of August 2026, covering January to June 2026: on-time arrival rate, cancellation rate, complaints per 100,000 passengers, mishandled bags per 100, involuntary bumps per 10,000 passengers and mishandled wheelchairs per 100. The six ranks are averaged with equal weight. Counting delays and cancellations double does not change the bottom four. Scope is the eight US airlines DOT grades that are still flying. Spirit is covered separately because it shut down on May 2, 2026, and Hawaiian is counted with Alaska, which now holds its operating certificate.

Here is the rest of the scorecard behind the ranking: the three measures the summary table leaves out.

Rank (1 = worst)	Airline	Bags mishandled per 100	Passengers bumped per 10,000	Wheelchairs mishandled per 100
1	Frontier Airlines	0.51	1.42	1.51
2	American Airlines	0.67	0.52	1.24
3	JetBlue Airways	0.31	0.07	1.36
4	United Airlines	0.69	0.01	1.13
5	Alaska Airlines	0.53	0.09	1.29
6	Delta Air Lines	0.37	0.00	0.36
7	Southwest Airlines	0.32	0.01	1.17
8	Allegiant Air	0.12	0.00	0.64
–	All DOT-graded airlines	0.50	0.21	1.06

January to June 2026, branded networks. Bags per 100 checked, involuntary bumps per 10,000 domestic passengers, wheelchairs and scooters per 100 carried in the hold. Source: US DOT Air Travel Consumer Report, August 2026.

1. Frontier Airlines

Frontier is last on the measure that best captures how passengers feel. DOT logged 3,673 complaint cases against it from January to June 2026, a rate of 21.07 per 100,000 passengers, against 9.92 for JetBlue, the next-worst airline still flying.

The biggest single category was refunds, with 863 complaints, ahead of 796 about delays and cancellations. That points past the flight itself, to what happens when a passenger tries to get money back.

Frontier also bumped 2,475 passengers off oversold flights against their will, a rate of 1.42 per 10,000. That is nearly seven times the industry rate of 0.21, and the highest of any airline in the report.

Wheelchair users fare worst here too. Frontier mishandled 1.51 of every 100 wheelchairs and scooters it carried in the hold, the highest rate in the report, against 1.06 for the industry.

This is not a one-season problem. Frontier had the worst on-time record of any airline DOT graded in full-year 2025, at 70.68%, and it finished last in J.D. Power’s 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study.

The fares are genuinely cheap, but the product is built on selling every extra separately, as our explainer on how ultra-low-cost airlines work breaks down. The complaint data suggests the savings come back out of passengers when a trip goes wrong.

Delta bumped nobody. Frontier bumped 2,475.

Delta Air Lines carried 91.8 million domestic passengers across its network in the first half of 2026 and did not involuntarily bump a single one. Frontier carried 17.4 million and bumped 2,475. Allegiant also recorded zero. The gap is not about traffic: Delta flew more than five times as many passengers.

2. American Airlines

American cancels more of its flights than any other US airline. It scrapped 3.32% of its scheduled flights from January to June 2026, 33,720 in total across its network, against an industry rate of 2.23%.

That is a pattern, not a blip. American also had the highest cancellation rate of any airline DOT graded for full-year 2025, at 2.36%, and the Wall Street Journal’s annual scorecard of that data put it in a tie with Frontier for last place.

The worst stretch came in late January 2026, when a winter storm hit five of its nine hubs. American cancelled more than 1,000 flights at Dallas Fort Worth on Monday, January 26 alone, and stranded passengers told CBS Texas they blamed missing crews rather than the weather by the third day.

Our explainer on why airlines cancel flights covers the point at which a delay turns into a cancellation.

Size is not the excuse. American scheduled 1,016,372 flights in the first half of 2026, about 25% more than Delta, which is why it tops our list of the biggest airlines in the US. Every figure in this ranking is a rate, though, so scale is already stripped out.

American drew 9,046 DOT complaints in the first half of 2026, 31% of every complaint filed against a US airline. That works out to 8.93 per 100,000 passengers across its whole network, or 12.22 if you count only the flights American operates itself.

Refund complaints alone ran to 2,493. American also mishandled 0.67 bags per 100, second only to United, and involuntarily bumped 5,247 passengers, more than any other airline, 3,173 of them on flights run by its regional partners.

The latest month shows no turnaround. Cirium counted 4,524 American cancellations in August 2026, the most of any airline in its North American report.

3. JetBlue Airways

If your only question is whether the flight will arrive on time, JetBlue is the worst airline in the US right now. Just 71.02% of its flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule from January to June 2026, the lowest of the eight, against 76.14% for the industry.

It is also cancelling far more often. JetBlue’s cancellation rate of 2.86% was nearly triple its 1.04% for the same months of 2025, and its complaint rate of 9.92 per 100,000 passengers was the second highest of any airline still flying.

Summer made it worse. Cirium’s August 2026 report put JetBlue last in North America with 63.85% of flights on time, and it completed only 94.91% of its schedule, so roughly one flight in 20 never left.

Weather in the Northeast hits JetBlue harder than most. When thunderstorms swept the region in early July, it cancelled about 5% of its flights in a single day, as storms hit its New York JFK and Boston bases, while Southwest cancelled about 1%.

The frustrating part is that JetBlue is a good airline to sit on. J.D. Power ranked it first for first and business class in 2026 and third in economy, and it mishandled just 0.31 bags per 100, second best in the report.

4. United Airlines

United is fourth for one reason: bags. It mishandled 0.69 of every 100 checked bags from January to June 2026, 267,861 bags in total, the worst rate of any US airline.

It was also last on bags for full-year 2025, at 0.72 per 100, so this is a habit rather than a bad month. DOT counts a bag as mishandled when it is lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered.

On almost everything else United is solid. Its 77.60% on-time rate was third best, its 1.76% cancellation rate sat below the industry average, and it involuntarily bumped only 107 passengers out of 81.4 million.

The practical advice writes itself: fly United, but carry on if you can.

5 to 8: the least-bad US airlines

The other four airlines DOT grades each have a weak spot, but none shows a pattern of failure across several measures.

5. Alaska Airlines

Alaska had the best on-time record in the country at 80.51%, and that now includes Hawaiian, which has flown under Alaska’s operating certificate since October 29, 2025.

It ranks fifth rather than eighth because it was third-worst on bags, bumping and wheelchairs. The bumping sits mostly with its regional partners, at 0.21 per 10,000 passengers.

6. Delta Air Lines

Delta was second on time at 79.33%, bumped nobody, and mishandled the fewest wheelchairs at 0.36 per 100.

Its weak spot is cancellations: 2.35% of flights, 19,150 in all, up from 1.22% in the first half of 2025.

7. Southwest Airlines

Southwest had by far the lowest complaint rate at 1.53 per 100,000 passengers and cancelled just 1.05% of its flights.

Its problem is punctuality. Only 74.76% of its flights arrived on time, down from 78.91% in the same months of 2025.

8. Allegiant Air

Allegiant is the least-bad airline on this data. It had the fewest cancellations at 0.90%, the fewest mishandled bags at 0.12 per 100, and zero involuntary bumps.

Only its on-time rate of 72.71%, third-worst, keeps it from a clean sheet. J.D. Power scored it 630 in economy, just above the 627 segment average.

What about Spirit Airlines?

On its 2026 numbers, Spirit would have been the worst airline in the US by a distance. From January until it stopped flying, just 59.84% of its flights arrived on time and 7.47% were cancelled, and it drew 2,053 complaints, or 27.8 per 100,000 passengers.

Spirit ceased operations on May 2, 2026, after 34 years and two Chapter 11 filings, in November 2024 and August 2025, and about 17,000 people lost their jobs. Our piece on who owns Spirit Airlines now covers what was left behind.

It is left out of the ranking because it no longer sells tickets, and its 2026 figures cover only the four months of a collapsing operation.

What about Breeze, Avelo and Sun Country?

They are not ranked because DOT does not grade them. Its on-time, cancellation, baggage and bumping tables cover only airlines with at least half of one percent of US domestic scheduled passenger revenue. DOT does log their complaints, 305 for Breeze, 287 for Avelo and 113 for Sun Country from January to June 2026, but the report gives no passenger counts to turn those into a fair rate. Any list that ranks them on DOT data alone is guessing.

How to avoid the worst of it

Choose the airline by the failure you can least afford. If a missed connection would wreck the trip, avoid the highest cancellation rates. If you are checking a bag, avoid United and American, and if you are flying to a deadline, JetBlue’s on-time record is the one to worry about.

Book the first flights of the day where you can. In June 2026, flights scheduled to leave the 30 largest US airports between 6 and 7 a.m. departed on time 85% to 94% of the time, while those scheduled between 8 and 9 p.m. managed only 30% to 76%.

Our explainer on why one delay creates more shows how that lateness builds through the day. Your departure airport matters too, and our ranking of the worst airports for flight delays shows which ones to route around.

Know your rights before you need them. Under DOT’s automatic refund rule, a cancellation or a significant change, more than 3 hours on a domestic flight or 6 hours on an international one, entitles you to a cash refund if you choose not to travel.

None of this is a safety ranking. DOT’s report measures delays, cancellations, bags, bumping, wheelchairs and complaints, not accidents, so for that question see our ranking of the safest airlines in the world.

FAQ

Frontier Airlines is the worst airline in the US in 2026 on Department of Transportation data. From January to June 2026 it had the highest complaint rate of any airline still flying, 21.07 per 100,000 passengers, the highest rates of involuntary bumping and mishandled wheelchairs, and the second-worst on-time record. American Airlines and JetBlue rank second and third.

Frontier. It finished last in J.D. Power’s 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, which surveyed 10,914 passengers, and it drew more DOT complaints per passenger than any other US airline still flying in the first half of 2026. Its complaint rate was more than double that of JetBlue, the next-worst.

It depends on what you can least afford to go wrong. In the first half of 2026 American cancelled the largest share of its flights at 3.32%, JetBlue had the worst on-time rate at 71.02%, United mishandled the most checked bags at 0.69 per 100, and Frontier bumped passengers involuntarily at nearly seven times the industry rate. If none of those risks matters much on your trip, the cheapest fare is usually fine.

Among airlines still flying, Frontier has the worst reputation on the evidence: the highest DOT complaint rate in the first half of 2026 and a last-place finish in J.D. Power’s 2026 satisfaction study. Spirit Airlines had an even higher complaint rate in 2026, 27.8 per 100,000 passengers, before it stopped flying on May 2, 2026.

By formal complaints per passenger, Frontier. DOT received 3,673 complaint cases about Frontier from January to June 2026, and refund problems were the largest category at 863. American drew the most complaints in total, 9,046, but it carries far more passengers, so its rate is less than half of Frontier’s.

American Airlines. It cancelled 3.32% of its scheduled flights from January to June 2026, 33,720 flights across its network, against an industry rate of 2.23%. It also had the highest cancellation rate for full-year 2025 at 2.36%, and in August 2026 Cirium counted 4,524 American cancellations, more than any other airline in its North American report.

United Airlines had the worst mishandled-baggage rate in the first half of 2026, 0.69 bags per 100 checked, just ahead of American at 0.67. United was also last for full-year 2025 at 0.72 per 100. DOT counts a bag as mishandled when it is lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered, and Allegiant had the best record at 0.12 per 100.

JetBlue. Only 71.02% of its flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule from January to June 2026, the lowest of the eight airlines DOT grades, and Cirium’s August 2026 report put it last in North America at 63.85%. Frontier was second-worst in the first half of the year at 72.06%.

You are owed a cash refund if you choose not to travel. Under DOT’s automatic refund rule, a cancellation or a significant change, meaning more than 3 hours on a domestic flight or 6 hours on an international one, entitles you to your money back, paid within seven business days for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods. Refunds were the single biggest source of airline complaints to DOT in the first half of 2026.

On the same DOT data, no single airline wins everything. Alaska Airlines had the best on-time rate in the first half of 2026 at 80.51%, Allegiant cancelled the fewest flights and mishandled the fewest bags, and Southwest drew the fewest complaints at 1.53 per 100,000 passengers. Delta bumped no passengers involuntarily and mishandled the fewest wheelchairs.

The Worst Airlines in the US, Ranked by Delays and Complaints (2026)

Table of Contents

1. Frontier Airlines

2. American Airlines

3. JetBlue Airways

4. United Airlines