How reliable is United Airlines?

80% of United Airlines’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule and 0.39% were cancelled in May 2026, across 74,200 flights — rank 4 of 8 major US carriers. It’s a monthly snapshot; the scorecard holds the trend.

Does It Deliver? · Airline

Is United Good for Business Travel?

Q: Is United Airlines good for business travel?

In May 2026, United Airlines was 80% on-time with a 0.39% cancellation rate (U.S. DOT), ranking 4 of 8 on punctuality, and scores 87/100 on the Deal-Day Airline Index for published deal-day commitments. On-time reliability is the best proxy for making your meeting.

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By Rachel Julian, Editor-in-Chief · July 22, 2026 · 3 min read

How reliable is United, and what does it commit to for the deal day — on-time performance from U.S. DOT data plus its Deal-Day Airline Index score.

Direct answer: United Airlines arrived on time 80% of the time with a 0.39% cancellation rate in May 2026 (U.S. DOT), ranking 4 of 8 major US carriers on punctuality, and scores 87/100 on the Deal-Day Airline Index for its published deal-day commitments (rank #4). For business travel, that combination — does it get you there on time, and what has it put in writing for the day a deal depends on the flight — is the measure that matters.

Whether United works for business travel comes down to reliability and published commitments. Here is United’s on-time record and its deal-day score, from the data.

Does United Airlines get you there on time?

On-time arrivals (within 15 min)	80%
Cancellation rate	0.39%
Rank, on-time (of 8 carriers)	4
Flights operated	74,200

U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, May 2026. A single-month snapshot, updated monthly — see the full United Airlines scorecard.

What United Airlines commits to for the deal day

Dimension	Score	Published checks
Connectivity aloft	2/3
Schedule control	3/3
Disruption recovery	3/3
Work & rest onboard	2/3
Admin speed	3/3

United Airlines: 87/100, rank #4 on the Deal-Day Airline Index — published commitments only.

The read

Starlink-era free Wi-Fi and the deepest published disruption tooling in the app — docked for a basic fare that still excludes the carry-on.

Most reliable airlines

The full carrier ranking, on-time.

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United Airlines scorecard

The running DOT record.

Delivered, monthly →

Is your trip worth it?

Score the trip before the airline.

The Trip Scorecard →

On the road for work a lot?

The Field Brief — sharp travel-ROI notes for the people who carry the quarter through airports. No signup, no email, nothing to unsubscribe from: read it free in the open archive.

Read the brief →

United Airlines’s reliability is computed from U.S. DOT BTS data (May 2026); commitment score from the Deal-Day Airline Index (published commitments). Independent and reader-funded — a partnership buys reach, never a rating.