United Airlines in December 2023

86.3%arrived on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report.

In December 2023, United Airlines (UA) reported 59,844 scheduled domestic flights. 86.3% arrived on time, 0.1% were cancelled and 0.1% diverted.

All reporting carriers together recorded 83.8% on time and 0.4% cancelled that month, so the carrier was 2.5 points above the combined figure.

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 40%, air carrier 35% and national aviation system 23%.

On time 86.3%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 13.4%
Cancelled 0.1%
Diverted 0.1%

Every scheduled domestic flight reported by United Airlines in December 2023.

December 2023 against a year earlier, the carrier's year and all carriers

Measure	Dec 2023	Year earlier	UA, 12 months to Jul 2026	All carriers, Dec 2023
Arrived on time	86.3%	—	78.2%	83.8%
Departed on time	86.8%	—	80.6%	83.1%
Cancelled	0.1%	—	1.0%	0.4%
Average arrival delay	-2.2 min	—	6.3 min	0.5 min
Scheduled flights a day	1,995	—	2,262	19,013
Scheduled flights	59,844	—	825,693	570,394

114 airports and 814 routes had UA flights that month.

Busiest airports that month

Airport	Departures	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
DEN Denver	8,032	84.6%	0.5 min	0.1%
ORD Chicago	6,697	86.2%	-3.5 min	0.1%
EWR Newark	5,675	87.2%	-7.5 min	0.1%
IAH Houston	5,524	85.7%	-0.7 min	0.0%
SFO San Francisco	4,024	78.3%	7.2 min	0.1%
IAD Washington	2,424	87.4%	-6.3 min	0.2%
LAX Los Angeles	2,163	82.8%	2.8 min	0.1%
MCO Orlando	1,219	87.2%	-1.4 min	0.1%
LAS Las Vegas	1,107	84.8%	0.5 min	0.1%
BOS Boston	905	90.5%	-11.7 min	0.7%
PHX Phoenix	836	90.0%	-3.1 min	0.0%
FLL Fort Lauderdale	831	89.3%	-6.1 min	0.2%
SAN San Diego	831	88.8%	-2.0 min	0.2%
TPA Tampa	790	90.1%	-6.5 min	0.0%
CLE Cleveland	761	93.7%	-10.0 min	0.0%

By scheduled departure hour

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over

Share of UA flights that arrived on time, by scheduled departure hour (local time at each origin), December 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	All carriers, Dec 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	35.2%	37.1%	169,926
Late-arriving aircraft	39.9%	38.8%	192,836
National Aviation System	22.9%	17.6%	110,522
Extreme weather	2.1%	6.2%	9,992
Security	0.0%	0.3%	65

483,341 delay minutes on 8,038 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Questions and answers

What share of United Airlines flights were on time in December 2023?

86.3% of 59,844 scheduled domestic flights arrived less than 15 minutes late; all reporting carriers together recorded 83.8% that month.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

December 2022 is outside the 36 months on file, or the carrier did not report that month.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for December 2023; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for United Airlines · methodology · corrections.