You reserve a flight, you make plans and, suddenly, you receive the worst Notification on mobile: Your flight has been canceled. It is not as common as delays or endless queuesbut when it happens, it can ruin a trip in a moment. For aeronautics, 2024 was a complex year due to errors such as Crowdstrike that demonstrated the Fragility of airports around the worldbut also to adverse weather situations and even geopolitical incidents.
And in this graphic of Visual Capitalist The 15 airlines with more cancellations are exhibited during 2024:


The data. Canceling a flight is not easy, so it is something that companies do not do not be totally necessary. They have to deal with the expenses of the passage (such as claims), but also with the expenses in airports for occupying the terminal, among others.
There must be a reason for weight as a climatological issue, concern for security or some technical problem in the ship that pushes the company to make that decision. They can also be administrative errors such as schedules, maintenance delays or lack of personnel.
Very located. As can be seen, most airlines are headquarters and operate mainly in the regions of Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. On the list only two European and one American sneak. In addition, although Chinese companies are not those that lead the list, the number of travelers who move and the flight cancellation rate is quite significant.
Perspective. Now, the graph must be accompanied by a table in which it clarifies what is the cancellation rate. In it, the total flights of each company and cancellations are exposed to obtain a percentage. First of all, here we leave the table:
company |
Region |
country |
Flights |
cancellation rate |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dana Air |
Middle East and Africa |
Nigeria |
2,396 |
33.9% |
Lion Air |
Asia-Pacific |
Indonesia |
125,550 |
16.7% |
Wings Air |
Asia-Pacific |
Indonesia |
62,176 |
16.3% |
Air Austral |
Middle East and Africa |
France |
7,628 |
14.9% |
Chongquing Airlines |
Asia-Pacific |
China |
57,868 |
14.8% |
OPE AIR JET |
Asia-Pacific |
Indonesia |
89,453 |
14.7% |
Air Seychelles |
Middle East and Africa |
Seychelles |
16,069 |
10.1% |
Batik Air |
Asia-Pacific |
Indonesia |
97,320 |
9.4% |
Winair |
Latin America |
Netherlands |
25,802 |
6.3% |
Cape Air |
North America |
USA |
83,101 |
6.1% |
Kenya Airways |
Middle East and Africa |
Kenya |
46,578 |
4.9% |
Ural Airlines |
Europe |
Russia |
61.021 |
4.8% |
Shenzhen Airlines |
Asia-Pacific |
China |
277,688 |
4.6% |
China Air |
Asia-Pacific |
China |
612.920 |
4.1% |
It is what allows to see more clearly the impact of the 813 canceled flights of Dana Air compared to the 2,396 total flights in front of those of a giant as an Chinese Air that “only” canceled 25,359 flights of a total of 612,920. It is still a burial, but it is not such a significant percentage of the total.
Specific challenges. Now, what are these cancellations, especially some as striking as those of Dana Air? Two factors come into play here: the specific challenges and those that are common. In the case of the African company, the thing comes from afar. In July 2022, its air transport license was paralyzed by regulators due to financial problems and security concerns.
They returned to operations a few months later, but in February 2023, the six aircraft of their fleet were held on land due to problems with maintenance. And, in 2024, a incident On the Lagos track he raised concerns about the security measures of the airline, reasuring the suspension of his licenses.
In the case of the Russian Ural Airlines, the cancellations are due to the fact that it was that year in which the European Union He added to the list of sanctions due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
And others more common. Apart from the unforeseen events, sanctions and negligence on the part of the companies, we see that small airlines have many problems to maintain their travel calendar. The funny thing is that there is a simple and understandable explanation for travelers: those that cover Indonesia, for example, must deal with the challenge of operating in archipelagos with more than 17,000 islands in which extreme climatic conditions are frequent.
In the case of the Cape Air (American) and Winair (Dutch), the explanation is also logical: they fly to complex areas of the Caribbean. Winair’s case is logical because it has a fleet of only eight planes and flies, above all, between destinations of the Sotavento Islands of the Minors, home of one of the most dangerous airports in the world, the Juliana Princess.
By zones. Beyond the cancellations of the airlines that track from Ciriumthe data of the difference between territories with China at the head is interesting, more than one point of difference from the second, which is Latin America:
Region |
Total flights |
canceled |
rate |
---|---|---|---|
Asia-Pacific |
12,489,263 |
315,317 |
2.52% |
Latin America |
2,898,438 |
42,407 |
1.46% |
North America |
9,925,300 |
135,744 |
1.37% |
Europe |
8,529,261 |
90,134 |
1.06 |
Middle East and Africa |
2,758,152 |
26,793 |
0.97% |
In the end, the data is there and, although there are reasons for flight cancellation that are understandable due to maintaining the passage, when it touches us it is not a dish of good taste.
In Xataka | There are people getting free flights and money at the expense of airlines. Your superpower: be very patient
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