U.S. airlines were on time 71.6% of the time in March, below March 2007’s rate of 73.3% but above February 2008’s rate of 68.6%, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Of the major carriers, US Airways had the top on-time rate in March at 79.1%. American was the worst at 62%.
In March, U.S. carriers canceled 2.6% of their scheduled domestic flights, the same rate recorded in March 2007 but down from 3.6% in February 2008.
The most frequently delayed flight was a tie between American’s Flight 791 from New York LaGuardia to Dallas/Fort Worth and ExpressJet’s (Continental Express) Flight 2286 from Newark to Dayton, Ohio. These flights were late 92.3% of the time.