Envoy Air, which flies under the American Eagle brand, posted the worst on-time rate among major U.S. carriers for the fifth month in a row.
The regional carrier, owned by American Airlines Group, reported that only 63.1 percent of its flights arrived on-time in December. It also had the second highest rate of canceled flights with 4.7 percent of its schedule canceled for the month.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s report released on Tuesday, the industry posted an on-time arrival rate of 75.3 percent in December, up from the 68.9 percent rate in December 2013 when several severe winter storms impacted airline operations.
Delta Air Lines had the best on-time rate with 88.9 percent of its flights arriving on time. Fort Worth-based American Airlines ranked no. 5 with 76.7 percent of its flights on-time while Dallas-based Southwest Airlines ranked eighth with 72.0 percent of its flights arriving on-time.
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There were no tarmac delays exceeding four hours, the DOT said. Since federal rules were enacted in 2010 that fined airlines thousands of dollars per passenger for lengthy tarmac delays, the DOT said airlines reported the lowest number of tarmac delays ever this year. In 2014, there were 30 domestic flights with tarmac delays over three hours and 9 international flights with tarmac delays over four hours, compared to 2009 when there were 868 domestic flights with tarmac delays over three hours.
Carriers also improved their mishandled baggage rate to 4.25 reports per passenger compared with 4.56 in December 2013. Consumer complaints also dropped 5.1 percent to 1,061 for December.
Rank | Carrier | On-Time Arrival Rate |
1 | Delta Air Lines | 88.9 |
2 | Hawaiian Airlines | 87.9 |
3 | Alaska Airlines | 80.4 |
4 | JetBlue Airways | 80.4 |
5 | American Airlines | 76.7 |
6 | ExpressJet Airlines | 76.0 |
7 | United Airlines | 72.4 |
8 | Southwest Airlines | 72.0 |
9 | Virgin America | 68.2 |
10 | Frontier Airlines | 67.8 |
11 | SkyWest Airlines | 67.2 |
12 | Envoy Air | 63.1 |
Total | 75.3 |
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
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