The nation’s largest airlines had a higher on-time performance rate this past January than in both January 2009 and December 2009, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the 18 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 78.7 percent in January, better than both January 2009’s 77 percent and December 2009’s 72 percent.
The consumer report includes BTS data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the reporting carriers. In January, the carriers canceled 2.5 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, higher than the 2.3 percent rate recorded in January 2009 but lower than December 2009’s rate of 2.8.
In January, the carriers filing on-time performance data reported that .004 percent of their scheduled flights had tarmac delays of three hours or more, a lower rate than both January 2009’s 0.0162 percent and December 2009’s 0.007 percent.
There were two flights with tarmac delays of four hours or more in January.
