Airlines' On-Time Rates Improve

The Department of Transportation's latest data show that U.S. airlines' on-time performance and baggage handling improved in January, and cancellations declined, compared to the same month a year ago.

Complaints to the Department of Transportation also dropped year-over-year, though there was a sizable increase compared with December.

Regional carrier Comair, a unit of Delta Air Lines Inc., had the worst on-time performance in January, while Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance in the month.

The DOT's numbers, which cover the 19 largest U.S. carriers, show an overall on-time arrival rate of 77 percent in January, an improvement over January 2008's 72.4 percent.

The carriers canceled 2.3 percent of their scheduled domestic flights in January, compared to 2.9 percent in January 2008.

The airlines posted a mishandled baggage rate of 5.2 reports per 1,000 passengers in January, an improvement over January 2008's rate of 7.39 percent rate.

The DOT said that in January it received 884 complaints about airline service from consumers, down 24.7 percent from the 1,174 complaints filed in January 2008.

Here's how the airlines rank in on-time performance:

1. Hawaiian 90.82 percent of flights on time
2. Southwest 83.30
3. ExpressJet 79.80
4. United 79.04
5. Pinnacle 77.93
6. Delta 77.56
7. Continental 77.43
8. AirTran 77.39
9. US Airways 77.34
10. Northwest 76.40
11. Frontier 76.32
12. SkyWest 76.30
13. American 75.47
14. Mesa 75.45
15. JetBlue 74.92
16. American Eagle 72.04
17. Alaska 71.51
18. Atlantic Southeast 68.30
19. Comair 56.75