Southwest Airlines has been crowned the best airline in the country, knocking Delta Air Lines off its perch for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, according to a new study.
The Wall Street Journal’s 18th annual airline scorecard cited Delta’s industry-low number of customer complaints and tarmac delays, along with strong on-time arrival rates, in putting the Dallas-based carrier at the top of the list.
Budget carrier Allegiant Air finished second overall, buoyed by the lowest cancellation rate among major airlines.
The Las Vegas-based airline also ranked first for the fewest mishandled bags and the lowest rate of passengers involuntarily bumped from flights.
Allegiant fell short of the top spot largely because of weaker on-time performance and a higher incidence of extreme delays. The airline says those delays reflect a deliberate strategy of holding flights rather than canceling them outright — a move it argues helps avoid stranding passengers.
For the fifth straight year, Allegiant logged the fewest mishandled bags and the lowest rate of involuntary bumping, according to the Journal.
Delta, which topped the rankings last year and had held first place for four consecutive years, slipped to third in the 2025 standings.
The Atlanta-based airline was hit hard by a wave of flight cancellations triggered by a massive CrowdStrike software outage in July 2024 that crippled Microsoft Windows systems worldwide.
Because The Journal’s 2024 scorecard only included data through May of that year, the disruption wasn’t reflected in last year’s rankings. The fallout — including a surge in customer complaints — was captured in the 2025 results.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian has said the CrowdStrike incident cost the airline about $500 million.
Delta told The Journal it aims to reclaim the top spot next year, saying: “Delta people set the bar high for airline performance as part of our drive for continuous improvement.”
Alaska Airlines, which continued to post strong reliability metrics even as it worked through the complex integration of Hawaiian Airlines, finished in fourth place.
It ranked among the best in terms of on-time arrivals and extreme delays, but slipped out of the top three spots because it didn’t dominate any single category and posted middling results in baggage handling and customer complaints.
Spirit Airlines finished fifth, marking the biggest year-over-year improvement among major carriers despite ongoing financial turmoil.
The ultra-low-cost airline sharply reduced cancellations and boosted on-time performance, climbing several spots in both categories, though persistent complaints and operational inconsistencies kept it from cracking the top tier.
Sixth-place United Airlines delivered solid on-time and cancellation performance but was dragged down by the worst baggage-handling record of any airline in the rankings.
JetBlue Airways landed in seventh place as it continued a multi-year turnaround effort aimed at restoring profitability.
Near the bottom, American Airlines tied for last place after posting the highest cancellation rate among major US carriers.
The airline struggled across nearly every metric, ranking no higher than sixth in any category as weather disruptions, staffing challenges and network complexity battered reliability throughout the year.
American was tied for last with Frontier Airlines, which ranked at or near the bottom in four of the seven categories measured.
The Post has sought comment from the airlines.
