On-time Airlines – Best and Worst

Could this be an unanticipated benefit of all those recent schedule cuts? The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) (Web site: www.bts.gov) reports the on-time arrival rate for this country’s major airlines was better during July than in the previous period last year. Not just that, but better than in June too. Traditionally, July is one of the busiest travel months of the year.

The numbers are impressive. BTS reports an overall on-time arrival rate of 75.7 percent for July. In July 2007 the figure was 69.8 percent, and in this past June, 70.8 percent of America’s flights got to the gate on time, that is to say within 15 minutes of schedule.

BTS says the best on-time performances were racked up by commuter/regional airline Pinnacle (85.6 percent), Hawaiian Airlines (83.6 percent), and discount Southwest Airlines (83.1 percent). Hawaiian’s figures are almost always bolstered by the nature of its route structure – transpacific flights from Hawaii to the Mainland, and interisland service.

The worst performers are commuter/regional carrier Comair, which flies under Delta Connection colors (63.3 percent), discount airline JetBlue (64.6 percent), and United Airlines (68.2 percent). A significant swath of JetBlue’s route structure emanates from New York Kennedy (JFK), whose perennial congestion problems contribute to otherwise service-intensive JetBlue’s ranking.

The country’s most delayed flight is Comair (Delta Connection) 5292, from Minneapolis/St. Paul to JFK. It was late getting to the gate 100 percent of the time.

Another stat that might be of interest: Frontier Airlines recorded the lowest rate of cancelled flights, just .02 percent. Northwest and discount Southwest ranked second and third best respectively. They each cancelled 0.6 percent of their flights according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler