Travel Tips
Travel Tuesday: 2025’s “Best Airline” Winner is Also the Year’s Most Controversial
Each January, the Wall Street Journal puts out its list of the best and worst domestic airlines during the preceding year. Mind you, these aren’t just subjective rankings or tier lists. Instead, their scorecards incorporate several pieces of data, from on-time arrivals to cancellations and mishandled baggage to involuntary bumping. So, which airline topped the list in 2025? Funny story about that.
According to WSJ’s data, the overall best domestic airline last year was none other than Southwest. If you’re out of the loop, the irony here is that Southwest endured a turbulent (pardon the pun) year as it basically gave up on everything that people loved about it. Namely, despite saying that it wouldn’t, the airline did away with its free checked luggage policy, instating fees that are right in line with the other major carriers. Incidentally, today actually marks the official launch of assigned seating on Southwest — marking the end of the carrier’s long-held open seating policy.
But let’s not harp too much on what people don’t like about Southwest at this particular moment. What did they get right?
For one, Southwest ranked first for tarmac delays of 2-hours or more. It’s actually held this position since at least 2021. Interestingly, though, that was the only category it won outright. Nevertheless, second-place showings in terms of on-time arrivals, cancellations, extreme delays, and involuntary bumping helped their overall score. In fact, the only category where they ranked lower than second was in terms of mishandled baggage (they settled for fourth).
As for the overall silver medal winner, it’s an airline I’ve written a lot about over the years: Allegiant. The leisure carrier took the top spot in three categories, including canceled flights, mishandled baggage, and involuntary bumping (tying with Delta for the win). Unfortunately, poor performances in on-time arrivals and extreme delays pulled down their ranking — but they still rose two spots from last year.
On that note, it’s also interesting to point out that Allegiant went from 9th place in canceled flights in 2021 and 2022 to second in 2023… only to fall to eighth in 2024. That makes their ascendance to the top slot all the more impressive in my view.
My other most-frequented airline (Delta) placed third overall — which was down from the first-place ranking they’ve held since before the pandemic. Atlanta’s hometown carrier was followed by Alaska and Spirit. That left United and JetBlue in the lower half, with American and Frontier tying for last place. For what it’s worth, Alaska performed best in terms of extreme delays, and Delta once again ranked tops for on-time arrivals. On the other end, Frontier had the most last-place finishes, taking that dishonor for on-time arrivals, extreme delays, and involuntary bumping.
With all of that said, WSJ does point out that this year’s ranking required a bit of grading on a curve. That’s because not a single one of these airlines managed an on-time arrivals percentage of 80% or more. That’s not terribly impressive — but the best is still the best.
Personally, since I have no real feeling on Southwest as someone who doesn’t fly them with any regularity, I’m just glad to see Allegiant faring well on this list. I guess the fact that they service my smaller airport with direct flights to Vegas, Orlando, and L.A. makes me want to root for them. Therefore, I’m pleased to see them moving up the list this year. At the same time, I guess it’s disappointing to see Delta dethroned… but I don’t have status with them anymore, so I’m less invested.
Anyway, for a more granular look at the data, the rankings, and how they’ve shifted over the years, I highly recommend checking out the Wall Street Journal’s full report.
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