Best Airlines in Latin America: Statistics for 2026
Which Latin American airline is best depends entirely on what you measure. Copa Airlines arrived on time more often than any other carrier in Cirium's 2025 Latin America ranking, LATAM Airlines won the Skytrax passenger-survey award for South America in 2026, and LATAM also carried more passengers than any other airline or airline group in the region.
Why this matters: punctuality, the share of flights that actually operate, passenger-rated service, safety oversight and size are different things, measured by different organisations. An airline can lead one list and sit mid-table on another. This page keeps every metric separate, names the source and period behind each figure, and does not combine them into a single score, so you can weigh what matters for your own trip.
Key Latin American Airline Statistics at a Glance
- Copa Airlines topped Cirium's 2025 Latin America on-time ranking, with 90.75% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025 - Aeromexico (90.02%) was Cirium's most on-time global airline for the second consecutive year and second in the Latin America table.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025 - GOL ranked third in Latin America at 87.75%, up 3.66 percentage points from 84.09% in 2024.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025 - Nine airlines qualified for Cirium's 2025 Latin America ranking, operating 1,966,108 flights between them.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025 - Completion factors ranged from 98.34% to 99.80%, with Copa completing the highest share of its tracked flights.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025 - Aeromexico led Cirium's Latin America and global rankings in August 2026 with 89.74% of arrivals on time, up from 83.96% in July.
Source: Cirium monthly On-Time Performance report, August 2026, as reported by A21, September 2026 - Azul topped Latin America in July 2026 with 87.74% on-time arrivals.
Source: Cirium, The Monthly On-Time Performance Report, July 2026 - Latin America's regional on-time rate rose from 82.62% in July 2026 to 83.86% in August 2026.
Source: Cirium monthly report, August 2026, as reported by A21 - LATAM won Skytrax's Best Airline in South America 2026 award and seven other South American category awards, including its Santiago business class lounge.
Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026 - Copa Airlines won Skytrax's Best Airline in Central America/Caribbean 2026 award, ahead of Arajet and Caribbean Airlines.
Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026 - LATAM ranked 42nd in Skytrax's World's Top 100 Airlines 2026, the highest position of any Latin American airline.
Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026 - Airlines on the IOSA safety-audit registry had 0.98 accidents per million flights in 2025, against 2.55 for airlines not on it.
Source: IATA, 2025 Safety Report, March 2026 - Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 1.77 accidents per million flights in 2025, down from 1.84 in 2024 and below the region's five-year average of 2.02.
Source: IATA, 2025 Safety Report, March 2026 - LATAM Airlines Group carried 87.4 million passengers in 2025, more than twice as many as Avianca, the next-largest airline compared here.
Source: LATAM Airlines Group, 4Q 2025 results, February 2026 - LATAM ended 2025 with 371 aircraft, the largest of the seven fleets compared here, including 20 cargo freighters.
Source: LATAM Airlines Group, 4Q 2025 results, February 2026 - Volaris reported the youngest average fleet age, 6.6 years, of the four airlines that publish the figure in their year-end results.
Source: Volaris, Q4 2025 results, February 2026
Most On-Time Airlines in Latin America in 2025
Cirium, the aviation data company, publishes an independent annual punctuality ranking. It counts a flight as on time if it reaches the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival, and in each region it only ranks airlines that clear its size thresholds for capacity, flights and seats. In 2025, nine airlines qualified for its Latin America table. The chart shows all nine.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025, Latin America airlines table, January to December 2025, published January 2026. On time = arrived at the gate within 15 minutes of schedule, measured on completed flights.
Copa Airlines led with 90.75%, and Aeromexico followed at 90.02%. Aeromexico also topped Cirium's separate global category, which covers the largest airlines that serve at least three regions. GOL (87.75%) and Azul (85.18%) made it two Brazilian airlines in the top four. Even ninth place, Aerolineas Argentinas at 76.54%, sits in a ranking that only includes airlines large enough to meet Cirium's thresholds, so the table says nothing about airlines that did not qualify.
Completion Factor: How Many Scheduled Flights Actually Operated
Punctuality only covers flights that flew. Cirium's completion factor fills the gap: it is the share of tracked flights that were completed rather than cancelled. For a passenger, a cancellation is usually more disruptive than a short delay, so this is worth checking alongside the on-time rate.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025, Latin America airlines table, completion factor column, January to December 2025. Completion factor = percentage of tracked flights completed (not cancelled).
All nine airlines completed more than 98% of their flights, and the order differs from the punctuality table. Copa Airlines completed 99.80%, JetSMART Chile99.77% and Aeromexico99.74%. JetSMART Chile ranked eighth for punctuality but second for completion, while Azul, fourth for punctuality, completed 98.57%. At the other end of the range, Avianca completed 98.34%, which means roughly 1.7 in every 100 of its tracked flights were not completed. For more on how cancellations are distributed worldwide, see our global flight cancellation statistics.
Does Size Hurt Punctuality? On-Time Rate vs Flights Operated
Bigger networks have more connections, more hubs and more weather exposure, so a common assumption is that the largest airlines must be the least punctual. Plotting each airline's 2025 flight count against its on-time rate tests that.
Source: Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025, Latin America airlines table, total flights and on-time arrival columns, January to December 2025. Flight counts rounded to the nearest 100 on the chart.
The pattern is weak. LATAM Airlines operated 580,707 flights, almost 30% of the 1,966,108 flown by the nine ranked airlines, and still arrived on time 82.40% of the time, level with SKY Airline (82.39%), which flew about a tenth as many. The two most punctual airlines, Copa (133,748 flights) and Aeromexico (188,859), are mid-sized carriers whose networks centre on one main hub each, Panama City and Mexico City. In this table, size alone does not predict punctuality.
Why airline figures can differ from Cirium's: airlines often publish their own punctuality numbers using their own definitions, for example on-time departures rather than arrivals, or domestic flights only. Aeromexico's results report 92.0% on-time departures for 2025, while Cirium measured 90.02% on-time arrivals. Every on-time figure on this page is Cirium's arrival measure unless stated otherwise, so the airlines can be compared on the same basis.
Latest Monthly On-Time Rankings: August 2026
Cirium also ranks airlines every month, which shows how the 2025 order is holding up in 2026. Its monthly Latin America list is a top 10 and includes Mexico's low-cost carriers Volaris and Viva, which were not in the 2025 annual table. Cirium's full August 2026 report sits behind a download form, so the figures below are as reported by trade press citing the report.
Source: Cirium, monthly On-Time Performance report, August 2026 (Latin America top 10), as reported by A21 (9 September 2026), Aviacion News (16 September 2026) and Reportur (17 September 2026). On time = arrived within 15 minutes of schedule.
Aeromexico led the region, and Cirium's global list, with 89.74% in August 2026, across 15,099 tracked flights, a jump from 83.96% in July. SKY Airline (89.00%) and Azul (87.77%) completed the top three, and Azul had led the region in July with 87.74%. Copa, the 2025 annual winner, was fourth at 87.20%. The region as a whole improved from 82.62% in July to 83.86% in August. Monthly rankings move with weather, strikes and schedule peaks, so a single month is only a snapshot.
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Skytrax World Airline Awards 2026: Latin American Winners
Punctuality data says nothing about the seat, the food or the crew. The Skytrax World Airline Awards offer a passenger-rated view instead, based on a customer survey whose results covered more than 300 airlines. The 2026 awards were announced in London on 18 September 2026. The table lists every South America and Central America/Caribbean category award in the 2026 results.
| Skytrax 2026 award | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Airline in South America | LATAM |
| Best Airline Staff in South America | LATAM |
| Cleanest Airline in South America | LATAM |
| Best Economy Class in South America | LATAM |
| Best Economy Class Onboard Catering in South America | LATAM |
| Best Business Class in South America | LATAM |
| Best Business Class Onboard Catering in South America | LATAM |
| Best Business Class Lounge in South America | LATAM (Santiago) |
| Best Regional Airline in South America | Azul |
| Best Cabin Crew in South America | Azul |
| Best Low-Cost Airline in South America | JetSMART |
| Best Airline in Central America/Caribbean | Copa Airlines |
| Best Regional Airline in Central America/Caribbean | Copa Airlines |
| Best Airline Staff in Central America/Caribbean | Caribbean Airlines |
Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026, A-Z of the 2026 award winners and Best Airlines 2026 by Region, announced 18 September 2026. Awards are based on Skytrax's passenger survey.
LATAM took 8 of the 14 regional awards, and its Best Airline in South America win puts it ahead of Azul, JetSMART, SKY Airline and Avianca in Skytrax's South America list. Copa Airlines won the Central America/Caribbean title, ahead of Arajet and Caribbean Airlines, which makes Copa the only airline in the region to lead both Cirium's 2025 punctuality table and a Skytrax regional list. In the global Top 100, five Latin American airlines appear: LATAM at 42nd, Azul at 70th, JetSMART at 78th, SKY Airline at 92nd and Copa at 94th. Mexico's airlines do not feature in either Latin American regional list, and Aeromexico, the world's most on-time airline in Cirium's 2025 review, is not in the Top 100, a reminder that punctuality and passenger-rated service are separate questions.
Safety Audits: What IOSA Registration Tells You
The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) is the global industry standard for auditing how an airline manages and controls its operations, and its manual contains 916 standards. As of May 2026, 449 airlines were on the IOSA registry, 94 of them not IATA members. IATA's accident data shows why the registry matters to passengers.
Source: IATA, 2025 Annual Safety Report, press release of 9 March 2026; IATA, Fact sheet: IATA Safety Audit Programs (IOSA), June 2026. All accidents per million flights (sectors), 2025.
In 2025, airlines on the IOSA registry had 0.98 accidents per million flights, while airlines not on it had 2.55, about 2.6 times higher. IATA members, all of which must hold IOSA registration, recorded 0.72. IOSA registration does not rate or rank airlines against each other. It shows that an airline has passed IATA's external operational safety audit.
IATA states that all its members are IOSA registered and must remain registered to keep their membership. IATA's current member list, checked on 25 September 2026, includes Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Arajet, Avianca, Azul, BoA Boliviana de Aviacion, Caribbean Airlines, Copa Airlines, GOL, the JetSMART airlines of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, LATAM Airlines Group and its Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru affiliates, SKY Airline and Volaris. Viva does not appear on the member list, so the membership rule says nothing about its audit status either way. Non-members can still be IOSA registered: 94 of the 449 airlines on the registry are not IATA members. IATA's IOSA registry is the place to check any individual airline. For fatal-accident trends worldwide, see our air traffic fatality statistics.
Accident Rates: Latin America and the Caribbean vs Other Regions
IATA also breaks its accident data down by the region where each operator is registered. Accidents are rare everywhere, so a single event can move a region's rate noticeably from one year to the next.
Source: IATA, 2025 Annual Safety Report, press release of 9 March 2026, all-accident safety performance by region of operator registration, 2025. All eight IATA regions shown.
Operators registered in Latin America and the Caribbean recorded five accidents in 2025 and a rate of 1.77 per million flights, an improvement on 1.84 in 2024 and better than the region's 2021 to 2025 average of 2.02. That put the region between North America (1.68) and the CIS (2.74), and above the global all-airline rate of 1.32. Fatality risk in the region fell from 0.37 in 2024 to 0.26 in 2025, and runway excursions were the most common accident type. These are regional figures and do not show any individual airline's record.
Largest Latin American Airlines by Passengers Carried in 2025
Size decides how many routes, connections and daily frequencies an airline can offer. The chart covers eight of the region's largest airlines and airline groups whose financial results include a full-year 2025 passenger total.
Source: LATAM Airlines Group, 4Q 2025 results (February 2026); Abra Group, fourth quarter and full year 2025 results (March 2026) for Avianca; GOL, 4Q25 earnings release (30 March 2026); Azul, 4Q25 results (27 March 2026); Volaris, Q4 2025 results (24 February 2026); Grupo Viva Aerobus, 4Q and FY 2025 earnings release (27 February 2026); Grupo Aeromexico, 4Q25 and FY25 results (17 February 2026); Copa Holdings, 4Q and FY 2025 results (11 February 2026). Avianca's total is rounded to the nearest million by Abra Group.
LATAM Airlines Group carried 87.4 million passengers in 2025, up 6.6% from 82.0 million, more than twice Avianca's 37 million. Brazil's GOL (34.5 million) and Azul (31.9 million) came next, followed closely by Mexico's two low-cost carriers, Volaris (31.0 million) and Viva (30.0 million), which both carried more passengers than Grupo Aeromexico (24.6 million, down 3.0%). Copa Airlines, the most punctual airline in Cirium's regional table, carried 14.9 million. For comparison with the US and Canadian majors, see our largest airlines in North America page.
Fleet Size and Fleet Age at the End of 2025
A younger fleet usually means newer cabins and lower fuel burn, although maintenance and engine reliability matter as much as age. The chart shows each airline's fleet at 31 December 2025, as published in its own results. Each airline counts slightly differently, and the source line notes where freighters or grounded aircraft are included.
Source: Q4 2025 results of LATAM Airlines Group (371 aircraft incl. 20 freighters), Azul (187, passenger operating fleet incl. 23 Cessna aircraft), Grupo Aeromexico (165, operating fleet), Volaris (155), GOL (146 incl. 9 freighters, of which 129 operational), Copa Holdings (125) and Grupo Viva Aerobus (104, excl. short-term leases). Avianca is not shown because Abra Group does not publish a year-end aircraft count for it.
LATAM had the largest of the seven fleets, 371 aircraft, followed by Azul (187) and Aeromexico (165). Four airlines publish an average fleet age in their year-end results: Volaris 6.6 years, Azul 7.2 years (excluding its small Cessna aircraft), Viva 7.6 years and Aeromexico 8.6 years. Fleet counts also hide aircraft on the ground: Viva reported an average of 26.0 A320neo-family aircraft grounded in the fourth quarter of 2025 in connection with Pratt and Whitney GTF engine issues, and GOL had 129 of its 146 aircraft in operation at year-end. For the global picture, see our aircraft fleet size and growth statistics.
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Outlook
The picture for 2026 is still forming. Azul led Cirium's monthly Latin America list in July 2026 and Aeromexico in August, with SKY Airline and Copa close behind, and Cirium's full-year 2026 review is expected in early January 2027, as in previous years. Mexico's market may also change shape: Viva and Volaris announced in December 2025 a proposed new airline group that would keep both brands and operating certificates, and as of September 2026 a decision by Mexico's competition authority was still expected by the end of the year, according to FlightGlobal. Skytrax's awards are annual, so its next passenger-survey results are due in 2027. Until then, the most useful approach is the one this page takes: pick the metric that matters for your trip, whether punctuality, completed flights, cabin experience, audit status or network size, and compare airlines on that measure alone.
References and Sources
- Cirium, On-Time Performance Review 2025: Airlines and Airports, January 2026 (Latin America airlines table, global airlines table, most improved airlines table, glossary)
- Cirium, The Monthly On-Time Performance Report, July 2026 (published 10 August 2026); August 2026 figures via the A21, Aviacion News and Reportur articles below
- A21, Vuelve Aeromexico a liderar la puntualidad mundial en agosto: Cirium, 9 September 2026
- Aviacion News, Puntualidad en agosto: Aeromexico lider entre las globales y en Latinoamerica, 16 September 2026
- Reportur, Aeromexico y Copa se imponen en puntualidad a Avianca y Latam, 17 September 2026
- Skytrax, A-Z of the 2026 World Airline Award Winners, 18 September 2026
- Skytrax, Best Airlines 2026 by Region, 18 September 2026
- Skytrax, World's Top 100 Airlines 2026, 18 September 2026
- Skytrax, Singapore Airlines is named the World's Best Airline at the 2026 World Airline Awards, 18 September 2026
- IATA, IATA Releases 2025 Safety Report, press release No. 11, 9 March 2026
- IATA, Fact sheet: IATA Safety Audit Programs, IOSA, June 2026
- IATA, IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) programme page, accessed 25 September 2026
- IATA, Current Airline Members, accessed 25 September 2026
- LATAM Airlines Group, 4Q 2025 Results, Form 6-K, February 2026
- Abra Group, Abra reports fourth quarter and full year 2025 pro forma performance, March 2026
- GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, Earnings Release 4Q25, 30 March 2026
- Azul S.A., 4Q25 Results, Form 6-K, 27 March 2026
- Volaris, Volaris Reports Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter 2025, 24 February 2026
- Grupo Viva Aerobus, Earnings Release 4Q and FY 2025, 27 February 2026
- Grupo Aeromexico, 4Q25 and FY25 Results, Form 6-K exhibit 99.1, 17 February 2026
- Copa Holdings, Copa Holdings Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Financial Results, 11 February 2026
- FlightGlobal, US regulators quietly approve Volaris-Viva merger, 9 September 2026
Methodology Note
Each metric on this page comes from its own source and is presented separately; AirAdvisor has not built a combined score or index, and no airline is described as best overall. Annual on-time arrival rates, completion factors and flight counts are Cirium's published figures from the On-Time Performance Review 2025 Latin America table, which ranks the nine airlines that met Cirium's regional size and tracking thresholds; the 1,966,108-flight total is Cirium's own table total and LATAM's share of it (29.5%) is an AirAdvisor calculation, and GOL's 2024 comparison comes from Cirium's most improved airlines table. Cirium's on-time measure counts arrivals within 15 minutes of schedule on completed flights, and its completion factor is the share of tracked flights not cancelled. August 2026 monthly figures are from Cirium's monthly report as reported by three trade publications, because the report itself sits behind a download form; one of them gives JetSMART as 75.27%, and we use the 75.29% reported by the other two. The July 2026 regional leader (Azul, 87.74%) is from Cirium's own July 2026 report graphic. Skytrax results are passenger-survey awards and are shown as Skytrax published them. Safety figures are IATA's 2025 all-accident rates per million flights (IATA also calls these sectors); the regional rates are by region of operator registration and are not airline results, and the statement that IATA members are IOSA registered is IATA's own; IATA's member list was checked on 25 September 2026, and we did not infer the audit status of any airline that is not a member. Passenger totals and fleet counts are each company's own published full-year 2025 figures, which count slightly differently (booked, carried or on board; operating or total fleet), as noted in the source lines; GOL's 34.5 million is domestic plus international passengers on board, Abra Group rounds Avianca's total to the nearest million, and percentage changes are recomputed from the published figures. No figure on this page is a forecast.
Author:
Amy LancelotteJob/Position: Senior Writer & Content Strategist
Amy Lancelotte is a Senior Content Writer and editorial contributor at AirAdvisor with over seven years of experience producing research-based articles for international audiences. Her work focuses on travel, aviation, and air passenger rights, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, verified data, and clear, reader-first explanations.
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