Better performance for US carriers in 2016

Amongst other information, the annual US Department of Transportation air travel report reveals the lowest rate of flight cancellations for over two decades.

Coming out on top, with the highest punctuality figures, was Hawaiian Airlines: it chalked up a statistic of 85.1%, edging out Delta Air Lines, which managed a creditable 81.4%. Stalwart American Airlines took the third position, with figures of 79.1%.

Losers in the race for on time performance were SkyWest (which managed 69.8%) and Virgin America (at 68.3%), whilst Frontier brought up the rear with 62.4%. The bad news for Frontier didn’t end there, because the carrier also posted the worst flight cancellation statistics, at 6.4%. In contrast, Hawaiian posted a figure of just 0.1%, which was chased by Delta at 0.2%.

The good news also included baggage, with mishandled luggage dropping to 2.7% per 1,000 passengers compared to the 2015 statistic of 3.13%. Complaints received by the DOT for the same period were also down by over 11%, accentuating the better year overall for US carriers.