NEW YORK — Only three flights sat on the tarmac for more than three hours in June, compared with 268 a year ago, the government said Tuesday. But airlines didn’t cancel more flights to avoid potentially massive fines for those long delays.
All three of the flights that were on the runway for more than three hours were operated by United Airlines, and all broke the three-hour limit by five minutes or less. All were flying out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport on the same day — June 18 — when thunderstorms and strong winds battered the area. United later canceled two of those three flights.
United said the weather prevented employees from safely loading and unloading aircraft at a few points during the day. The airline said it gave passengers food, drinks and regular updates, and provided compensation to customers on the canceled flights.
June is one of the busiest months for air travel.
On-time rankings
1. Hawaiian 93.62%
2. Alaska 88.94%
3. US Airways 83.37%
4. JetBlue 81.35%
5. Continental 80.82%
6. Mesa 80.58%
7. AirTran 79.58%
8. United 79.47%
10. Southwest 78.45%
11. SkyWest 77.55%
12. Frontier 77.11%
14. American 73.76%
