Which months have the most cancelled flights?

In the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026, U.S. airlines cancelled the largest share of scheduled flights in January 2026, 4.7%, and the smallest in September 2025, 0.5%. In November 2025 the government shutdown led the FAA to order flight cuts. Each bar is one month, not an average over many years.

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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.

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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 August 31, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/flight-cancellations-by-month (accessed November 4, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Month % of scheduled flights cancelled
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
Aug 2026 1.9

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