Hawaiian most punctual airline in March

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Hawaiian Airlines resumed the top spot among U.S. carriers in punctuality during the month of March, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports.

Hawaiian Airlines resumed the top spot among U.S. carriers in punctuality during the month of March, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports.

Averaging an 87.3 percent on-time performance ranking during the month among the nation’s 16 largest carriers, Hawaiian Airlines came in first, ahead of Alaska Airlines, which had an 85.6 percent on-time performance, during the month, according to the department. Both exceeded the industry average by 6 percentage points.

In January and February Hawaiian Airlines, which commonly tops the list, was second among the 16 carriers.

The department said Tuesday that 78.7 percent of domestic flights arrived on-time in March, up from 72.8 percent in February and 77 percent in January.

The worst record for punctuality in March was held by regional carrier Frontier Airlines, which saw just less than two-thirds of its flights arrive on time.

Airlines attributed the delays to a variety of factors. Among them late arrivals, which resulted in 6.86 percent of the delays, air carrier delays, which resulted in 5.97 percent of the delays, and national aviation system signal delays, to which airlines attributed 5.61 percent of delays.

About 2.2 percent of March flights were canceled among the carriers, down from 4.8 percent in February. Hawaiian Airlines cancelled 0.2 percent — or 13 — of its 6,313 scheduled flights, according to the department. Regional carrier Envoy Air notched the most flight cancellations with 7.2 percent of the airline’s 28,146 flights cancelled.