With fewer seats flying, U.S. carriers reported their best on-time arrival rate last year since 2003, when the post 9/11 recession similarly sank demand and supply, according to monthly federal data released Friday.
The nation's 19 largest airlines said 79.5% of their flights arrived on time in 2009, compared to 76% in 2008 and 82% in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which has been monitoring the data since 1995. Flights are considered on time if they arrive within 15 minutes of schedule.
In December, the carriers recorded an on-time performance rate of 72%, dramatically down from the record-high 88.6% on-time rate set a month earlier, but better than December 2008's 65.3%.
That more flights would be delayed in December compared to November was expected by analysts. Holiday traffic makes December one of the busiest months, and airport security tightened dramatically after the foiled Christmas Day terrorist attempt to detonate a bomb on a Northwest flight, likely resulting in more delays.
Bad weather was blamed for about 45% of delays in December.
Airlines have padded more time into their flight schedules over the years, making it easier for them to arrive on time.
But domestic airlines are also running leaner operations than a year ago, and analysts say fewer flights and seats help boost on-time rates. In December, the airlines operated 529,000 flights, down 3% from a year ago.
However, in a possible sign of airlines' confidence that a rebound is near, they added about 19,700 more flights in December vs. November.
Among major carriers, Alaska Airlines had the highest on-time rate in December, with 84%. United and Delta followed.
American Eagle, an American Airlines' connection carrier, was the worst, with 64.5%. Delta subsidiary Comair and AirTran also ranked in the bottom three.
Other findings:
•Lengthy tarmac delays. The carriers' lengthy tarmac delays worsened sharply in December, following an improvement in late 2008. In December, 35 planes sat on the airfield before departing, being diverted or pulled back. That compares only four in November and 12 in October.
American Airlines was the worst, with 10 flights that sat on the tarmac for 3 hours or longer. An American Eagle flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Moline, Ill., on Dec. 24 sat on the DFW tarmac for more than 4 hours before being canceled.
•Cancellations. The airlines canceled 14,700 flights in December vs. 17,800 a year ago.
•Mishandled bags. The mishandled baggage rate in December, 5.2 per 1,000 passengers, was better than 7 reported a year ago. For all of 2009, 3.9 luggage reports were filed per 1,000 passengers, improved from 5.3 in 2008.
•Customer complaints. In December, the Transportation Department received 692 complaints from customers about airline service, down from 702 a year ago. Customers submitted 112 complaints about Delta, the most among U.S. airlines. Its merged partner Northwest received an additional 40.
•Flight oversale. Nearly 15,500 passengers were denied boarding involuntarily in the fourth quarter, due to airlines? common practice of selling more tickets than the number of seats available. That?s about 1.1 denied boarding for every 10,000 passengers. The rate was flat compared to a year ago. In 2009, more than 69,000 were denied boarding involuntarily out of 582 million passengers.