NEW YORK — U.S. airlines were late more often in July than a year earlier, but there were only three planes stuck for more than three hours, the government said Monday.
The on-time rate for the country’s biggest airlines in the first seven months of this year was the third best in 16 years. They operated 76.7 percent of flights on time in July, down from 77.6 percent in July 2009. The on-time rate in July was better than the month before, as incidents of severe weather that delayed planes declined from June to July. The airlines canceled more flights than a year ago, but there were fewer cancellations in July than in June.
The best at getting customers to their destinations on time was Hawaiian, followed by Alaska and United. The worst on-time rate was ExpressJet, which operates regional flights for United and Continental. Comair, Delta’s regional unit, and Delta’s main operations were only slightly better.
Passenger complaints to the DOT soared in July from a year ago, up 32.3 percent to 1,094. Most of the complaints in July were about problems with cancellations and delays. The Associated Press; Bloomberg News photo
