Hawaiian Airlines regains top spot for on-time flights
Hawaiian Airlines regained the top spot as the nation’s most punctual domestic air carrier with an 87.3 percent on-time record in March.
Hawaiian had been number 2, behind Delta Airlines in December and January and Alaska Airlines in February.
The federal government counts a flight as on time if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.
The government said 78.7 percent of flights operated by the 14 largest airlines arrived on time in March, up from 72.8 percent in February and 77.6 percent in March 2014.
Alaska Airlines saw 85.6 percent of its flights arrive on time in March and Delta had an 84 percent on-time rating.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s monthly report for March, released Monday, shows consumer complaints against airlines are rising even as the carriers get slightly better at staying on schedule.
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The DOT received more complaints from consumers in March than it did in either the previous month or March of 2014.
While the numbers are still very small — only about one in every 50,000 passengers complains to the government — they vary greatly among carriers.
Passengers on Frontier Airlines are 34 times more likely to complain than passengers on Southwest Airlines, which has the lowest complaint rate. Spirit Airlines has the second-worst rate.