An average of 78 percent of flights on major U.S. airlines arrived on time during the month of June, according to statistics released by the Transportation Department on Wednesday.
The on-time statistic is up from 74.8 percent in June 2015, but down from 83 percent this past May. The government counts a flight on time if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.
Fliers also filed 1,492 airline complaints to the department in June, down significantly from the 2,048 filed a year ago, but up from the 1,134 received in May, according to a press release.
Late-arriving aircraft caused the majority of delays during the month of June, accounting for almost 8 percent of all delays. Other significant delaying factors included aviation system issues and maintenance or crew problems. Extreme weather accounted for less than 1 percent of delays.
Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines had the best on-time ratings, while American Airlines had the worst. The airlines were ranked as follows:
- Hawaiian Airlines, 91.1 percent on-time
- Alaska Airlines, 86.4 percent
- SkyWest, 84.6 percent
- Delta Air Lines, 83.4 percent
- United Airlines, 79.2 percent
- Express Jet, 78.1 percent
- Frontier Airlines, 75.6 percent
- JetBlue Airways, 74.4 percent
- Southwest Airlines, 74.3 percent
- Spirit Airlines, 73.0 percent
- Virgin America, 72.6 percent
- American Airlines, 72.4 percent
The statistics come before this month's computer outage at Delta that caused more than 1,500 flight cancellations and delays while stranding tens of thousands of passengers.
