September was a rough month for plenty of European flyers, and the new rankings show it. According to OAG, Northeast Asian airlines dominated the global rankings, while several major European and North American carriers recorded weaker results and higher cancellations.[1] The main culprit was air traffic control trouble, not airline management alone.
The full picture is more mixed than the headlines suggest. Some Europe-wide data for the month actually looks better than a year ago, and different rankings measure different things. Here’s what the figures show, where they disagree, and what it means if you’re booking a flight.
What OAG’s September Ranking Shows
OAG’s September 2026 ranking uses a simple yardstick. It defines on-time performance as the percentage of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule.[1] The global ranking includes only airlines operating at least 1,500 flights during the month.[1] That filter keeps tiny operators from skewing the table.
Europe came out looking weak compared with Asia. Northeast Asian and Middle Eastern airlines delivered some of the strongest punctuality levels, while Europe and North America faced heavier operational disruption.[1] The report ties much of that gap to air traffic control disruption that affected carriers across Europe and the United States.[1]
Widerøe and Austrian Lead a Thin European Field
Only one European carrier cleared the 90 percent mark. Widerøe was the only European airline to exceed a 90% OTP rate, reaching 92.8% during the month.[1] The Norwegian regional operator isn’t a household name for most travelers, but its short-hop network has a long record of strong results.
Its score came with a caveat. The carrier cancelled 2.16% of its planned services.[1] Austrian Airlines followed as Europe’s second-best performer with an OTP rate of 86.8%.[1] Notably, Austrian also topped Cirium’s European table in March, so this isn’t a one-off.
Europe’s Biggest Airlines Took the Cancellation Hit
On-time percentages only count flights that actually operated, so cancellations matter just as much. Ryanair cancelled 1,013 flights, while easyJet recorded 1,015 cancellations.[1] British Airways cancelled 868 services.[1]
These numbers are large in absolute terms, but they should be read alongside the airlines’ sheer scale. A cancellation count says little on its own without the total number of flights flown. Still, for the passengers on those flights, the disruption was very real, and it clustered around UK airspace problems.
Two NATS Failures in Two Weeks
The UK’s air traffic provider had a bad month. More than 2,000 flights to, from, and over the United Kingdom were cancelled after a NATS software defect disrupted core flight-planning functions on September 8.[2] The ripple effects lasted for days across airlines and airports.
Then came a second fault. A connectivity fault hit the Flight Data Processing System at NATS’ Prestwick Centre in South Ayrshire on the morning of September 21.[3] Controllers cut the volume of aircraft they could safely accept through Scottish-controlled airspace by 60 per cent.[3] Reports put cancellations at roughly 200 on the day, and FlightGlobal later described the total as close to 300, so the final count depends on the source and the time of counting. EasyJet suffered the most, with 47 of its 670 scheduled departures cancelled[4] in Cirium’s early-afternoon tally.
Eurocontrol Tells a Gentler Story
Network-wide data from Eurocontrol complicates the “terrible September” narrative. For the week of 21 to 27 September, network arrival and departure punctuality were 77.0% and 71.7%, better than in the equivalent week of 2025.[5] Traffic was also heavy, as the network averaged 35,279 daily flights, 2.9% higher than in 2025.[5]
The delay causes were telling. ATC capacity and staffing was the top delay cause at 78% of all en-route ATFM delays, followed by ATC disruption at 9% following the ATC system failure in the UK on 21 September.[5] In other words, the UK failures mattered, but staffing and capacity limits were the bigger structural drag. Eurocontrol had also warned earlier that traffic would exceed 37,000 flights on Fridays in September.[6]
Why Different Rankings Don’t Always Agree
Cirium’s September report points in a brighter direction at the global level. Cancellations declined from 59,785 to 47,670, while the average on-time arrival rate across airlines in Cirium’s global ranking improved by nearly two percentage points to 86.04%.[7] Hainan Airlines led with a 92.71% on-time arrival rate, 3.04 percentage points ahead of Aeromexico at 89.67%.[8] SAS was the only European carrier I could confirm in that global top ten.
So why does Europe look worse in OAG’s table? Methods differ, airline samples differ, and a global average can hide a regional bad patch. Regional disruption can also hit some airlines much harder than others. I couldn’t find Cirium’s September list of European leaders in the sources available, so it’s safest to treat OAG’s European findings as one credible view rather than the final word.
The Longer Record Matters Too
One bad month doesn’t define an airline. For full-year 2025, Iberia Express defended its European title for the third consecutive year with 88.94% performance.[9] SAS finished third globally with 86.09%[9], and Austrian placed third in Europe at 83.74%.
Reliability isn’t only about timing, either. The Flightright Index compared 20 major European airlines over a six-month period, from 15 November 2025 to 14 May 2026[10], scoring reliability, payment behaviour and customer opinion. Austrian Airlines received the best overall score, 3.04 out of 5[10], which echoes its strong showing in the punctuality tables. Flightright is a claims company, so its index reflects its own methodology and focus.
What Travelers Can Take From This
You can’t control air traffic control failures, but you can plan around the risk. Early flights tend to be less exposed to knock-on delays, and a generous connection time helps if your itinerary runs through a busy hub. Travelers booking with budget carriers on UK routes may want to build in flexibility during periods of known disruption.
Know your rights, and know their limits. In a separate July incident involving a Eurocontrol IT outage, AirHelp noted that compensation under EC 261 is unlikely for such air traffic control problems, although airlines should still provide care and assistance.[11] Meals, accommodation and rebooking can still be owed even when cash compensation isn’t. Keep your receipts and check the airline’s own policy.
Conclusion
September 2026 was uneven for European air travel. OAG’s ranking shows only Widerøe above 90 percent and heavy cancellations at several large carriers, while Eurocontrol’s network data for late September was better than a year earlier. The truth sits between those views: a strained system, with UK air traffic control failures turning a manageable month into a miserable one for many passengers.
Punctuality tables are useful, but they’re snapshots. A system that runs close to its limit will keep producing months like this one, whoever tops the chart.
