Airlines Improve On-Time Performance In May

Domestic airlines improved their on-time arrival rates in May, although more than one in five flights still failed to get passengers to their destination as scheduled, according to government data released Monday.

Twenty-one percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived at least 15 minutes late, were canceled or diverted in May, according to the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That is down from more than 22 percent of late flights in the same month last year and in April 2008.

The previous month's figure was higher in part because American Airlines was forced to ground thousands of flights amid tighter government scrutiny of maintenance issues.

The airlines with the highest on-time arrival rates were Hawaiian Airlines (88.9 percent), Pinnacle Airlines (85.9 percent) and AirTran Airways (84.7 percent.)

US Airways had 83.6 percent of its flights arrive on time, putting it near the upper end of all carriers.

Regional carrier American Eagle Airlines had the highest rate of canceled flights at 2.8 percent, Mesa Airlines was second at 2.2 percent and Fort Worth-based American Airlines was third with 2.1 percent.

The lowest rates of canceled flights were recorded by Frontier Airlines (0.1 percent), JetBlue Airways (0.2 percent) and Atlantic Southeast Airlines (0.2 percent).

For the third month in a row, American ranked last in on-time service. Passengers on just over two-thirds of the Fort Worth-based carrier's flights (67.3 percent) got to their destinations on time in May. American pointed to weather and air-traffic control delays.

United Airlines, which reported 72.4 percent of arrivals were on time, and Continental Airlines, with 75.4 percent, rounded out the bottom of the on-time list.

To see an on-time performance breakdown covering recent monthly statistics, as well as over the previous 12 months, please click here. 

Email to a Friend