Hawaiian Air ranked No. 2 in on-time flights in March

Hawaiian Airlines rebounded to the No. 2 spot in on-time performance in March after coming in ninth in February, the airline’s worst performance in punctuality in over a decade.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said 84.7 percent of Hawaiian’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time in March. The DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report, which compares the performance of 12 U.S. carriers, was issued Tuesday.

Hawaiian has led all U.S. airlines in on-time performance for the last 13 years in a row. Hawaiian averaged a 91.1 percent on-time performance rating last year.

Delta Air Lines was No. 1 in March with 86.9 percent of its flights arriving on time while Virgin America, which is now owned by Alaska Airlines, was the least punctual with 65.5 percent of its flights arriving on time. The U.S. average for the 12 largest carriers was 79.9 percent.

In other performance categories, Hawaiian ranked first in the fewest flight cancellations in March, with 0.3 percent of flights canceled. That represented 23 cancellations out of 6,956 flights. JetBlue had the most cancellations with 3.9 percent of its flights canceled.

Hawaiian placed 10th out of 12 for fewest mishandled-baggage reports with 2.71 for every 1,000 passengers. Virgin America was the best, reporting 1.25 mishandled-baggage reports for every 1,000 passengers. ExpressJet Airlines was the worst, with 3.64 reports for every 1,000 passengers. The U.S. average was 2.24 for every 1,000 passengers.

Hawaiian ranked seventh for fewest consumer complaints with 1.08 complaints for every 100,000 passengers, or 10 complaints.

Despite its poor performance with mishandled-baggage reports, ExpressJet Airlines had the fewest consumer complaints in March. The airline had 0.31 complaints for every 100,000 passengers, or five complaints.

Spirit Airlines was last with 5.05 complaints for every 100,000 passengers, or 102 complaints.