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The best airlines in the United States ranked (2025)

Written by Tsvetelina Gorova
Last updated: December 17, 2025

Choosing which airline to fly with across the United State is not an easy task, if you are looking for the best value for money ratio. First of all, the largest and most popular airlines do not always provide the high quality service they advertise. And on the other hand, low-cost companies might offer much lower ticket fares but  immensely disappoint their customers with flight cancellations and safety concerns (like Southwest in the past year). 

But cost isn’t all that matters when picking what company to fly with. Choosing the wrong airline has the potential to take much more from us: whether it’s a major flight delay or worse, cancellation, an overbooked flight and consequently denied boarding, or mishandled / lost luggage, the amount of stress events like that can cause is rarely worth saving some dough. 

 

What are the best airlines in the US?

The best airlines in North America are Hawaiian Airlines in terms of on-time performance, Spirit Airlines based on WalletHub's ranking, and Frontier Airlines based on Skytrax. Here's a breakdown of the best airlines in the US:

 

Airline On-Time Performance WH Score Skytrax Rating

Hawaiian Airlines

83.4%

 57.32 3 stars
Delta Air Lines 79.6% 64.24 3 stars (LC*)
Southwest Airlines 78.1% 62.19 3 stars
Spirit Airlines 78.1% 69.12 3 stars
Alaska Airlines 77.4% 58.38 3 stars
United Airlines 76.8% 56.58 3 stars
Allegiant Air  74.7%

-

 3 stars (LC)
JetBlue Airways 73.4% 63.38 3 stars
American Airlines 73.1% 45.81 3 stars (LC)
Frontier Airlines 70% 47.02 4 stars (LC)

 

LC - low-cost airline

These ratings also include branded codeshared partners as they're part of the same airline group. Something to note is that some airlines operate more flights than others. So, the on-time performance of Hawaiian Airlines is better than that of Delta Air Lines. But Hawaiian has around 60 thousand flights this year, whereas Delta has almost 800 thousand flights. 

 

How did we choose the best airlines in the US? 

We used internal data and data from several sources in our selection of the best airlines in the US in 2025. We excluded any regional airlines, as their performance can't be measured accurately considering some of the biggest airlines in the US, like United, have operated over 1M flights each this year. Our ranking is based on

  • SkyRefund's internal performance and response-rate data 
  • On-time performance data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
  • Study of North American airlines by WalletHub, which considers factors like cancellation and delay rates, in-flight comfort, baggage handling, and in-flight comfort
  • Customer satisfaction ratings by Skytrax

We wanted to compare different sources of information to present a more rounded view of the best airlines in North America.  

 

How can SkyRefund help?

Even the best airlines can experience flight disruptions. This is where we can help. With over 8 years of legal experience in aviation law, SkyRefund is a flight compensation company that helps air passengers exercise their rights. 

So, if your international flight gets delayed or canceled, we can help you get compensation up to $700. And while the back and forth with the airline can be overwhelming, submitting a claim on our website takes only 3 minutes.