Hawaiian Airlines, which historically is the most punctual carrier in the nation, was knocked off its perch again last month after posting its lowest on-time performance in more than 10 years.

The state’s largest carrier slipped to third place in August for punctuality to mark the third time this year and fourth time since December that it hasn’t been ranked No. 1, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Hawaiian arrived on time on just 81.5 percent of its flights, slightly above the national average of 80.3 percent from the 13 reporting airlines. Delta Air Lines (85.5 percent) and Alaska Airlines (82.9 percent) occupied the top two spots.

Hawaiian spokeswoman Ann Botticelli said that since the company began reporting statistics to the DOT in January 2004, its on-time performance always has been above 81.5 percent.

“We have no records before that,” she said.

A flight is counted as “on time” by the DOT if it arrives within 14 minutes of the scheduled time. The DOT data covers nonstop scheduled flights between points within the United States by U.S. airlines that have at least 1 percent of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenue.

Heading into 2015, Hawaiian had led U.S. carriers in on-time performance for each of the past 11 years beginning in 2004. Hawaiian has been first in five of the eight months reported so far this year.

Mark Dunkerley, president and CEO of Hawaiian, blamed the drop on a confluence of events, including a shortage of gates due to increased airlift and the state’s airport modernization project.

“Several intersecting factors led to the delivery of our worst on-time performance in more than a decade,” Dunkerley said. “More flights and more passengers created a shortage of gates to handle our flights at Honolulu International Airport and led to delays in processing passengers through customs and immigration during the midmorning peak. This delayed our ability to turn our flights.”

In August, total domestic air seats to Hawaii, including scheduled and charter flights, rose 5.4 percent from the year-earlier period while the number of domestic passengers arriving by plane increased 3.1 percent, according to Hawaii Tourism Authority data. During that same period, total international air seats increased 6.3 percent while the number of international arrivals rose 2.3 percent.

Dunkerley also said “abrupt changes” to the routing of aircraft in and around Honolulu meant that flight times were longer than scheduled.

“To top it off,” he added, “construction related to the airport modernization project created additional congestion and delays.”

Dunkerley said Hawaiian is coping with the renovation work while going about its everyday business.

“Airport modernization has been a long time coming, and we are certainly very happy to see it underway, but we have felt and will continue to feel short-term pain associated with this project,” Dunkerley said. “Our employees have been working with airport staff to manage these challenges and will continue to do so.”

In other categories, Hawaiian ranked fifth for fewest mishandled-baggage reports with 2.85 per 1,000 passengers, or 2,597 reports out of 911,241 passengers. Also, Hawaiian was fourth for fewest consumer complaints with 0.73 per 100,000 passengers, and fifth in flight cancellations with 0.6 percent, or 44 overall, out of 6,901 flights.