Air passengers in US look less likely to suffer delays

Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian lead the way in improvements to services in November as fewer than 1 per cent of domestic flights were cancelled.

A Delta Air Lines flight at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airpor. The US federal department of Ttansportation reported that US airlines are improving on-time arrivals and cancelShow more

If you are travelling in the United States any time soon, this news should reassure you: the chances that your flight will be on time and will not get cancelled appear to be looking up.

The US federal department of transportation has reported that 86.5 per cent of US flights in November arrived on time, an improvement over both the previous month and November 2015.

Less than one-third of 1 per cent of domestic flights were cancelled, the lowest rate in any month since the department started keeping comparable records in 1995. The previous low was set in September.

And the rate of bags that got lost, delayed or damaged was the lowest in figures that go back to 1987, the department said.

Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines posted the best rates for on-time arrivals, at over 90 per cent. Virgin America, which is now owned by Alaska Airlines’ parent, had the worst mark, 81.4 per cent.

Delta reported no cancelled flights the entire month but diverted 79 flights to alternate airports. Alaska, Frontier, Hawaiian and Virgin America cancelled fewer than 20 flights each with far fewer diversions than Delta.

ExpressJet and SkyWest, which operate flights for regional brands such as American Eagle, United Express and Delta Connection, each cancelled more than 300 flights.

Two flights, one on United Airlines and one on Southwest, were delayed on the ground for at least three hours, which could expose the airlines to fines.

The airlines reported about two mishandled bags for every 1,000 passengers. Virgin America and Alaska had the best rates for bag handling while ExpressJet and Frontier had the worst.

Consumers filed 642 complaints about airlines with the Transportation Department, down from 987 a year earlier.

* AP

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