Which months have the most cancelled flights?

In January 2026, a month of winter storms, U.S. airlines cancelled 4.7% of scheduled flights, the most of the 12 months from August 2025; September and October 2025 were the lowest, at 0.5%. November 2025 reached 2.5% when the government shutdown led the FAA to order flight cuts. Each bar is one month, not an average over many years.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

The value axis starts at zero. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

Key facts

Measure: % of scheduled flights cancelled. Written from the data below.

  • Jan 2026 has the highest figure, 4.7%, followed by Mar 2026 (2.9%) and Jul 2026 (2.6%).
  • Oct 2025 and Sep 2025 share the lowest figure, 0.5%.
  • The highest is 9.4 times the lowest.

Source and date

Source
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Performance (Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 1987–present)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which months have the most cancelled flights?” Chart. Data: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Performance (Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 1987–present), https://www.transtats.bts.gov/DL_SelectFields.aspx?gnoyr_VQ=FGJ&QO_fu146_anzr=b0-gvzr (data as of July 31, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/flight-cancellations-by-month (accessed October 15, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Month % of scheduled flights cancelled
Aug 2025 1.1
Sep 2025 0.5
Oct 2025 0.5
Nov 2025 2.5
Dec 2025 1.5
Jan 2026 4.7
Feb 2026 2.3
Mar 2026 2.9
Apr 2026 0.9
May 2026 0.9
Jun 2026 1.6
Jul 2026 2.6

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.