US DOT September on-time rankings released - best rate in 6 years!

September 2009 proved to be a good month for the nation’s airlines posting the best on-time rate in six years.  Combined, the airlines achieved a 86.2 percent on-time rate with that percentage of flight arriving at their destination within 15 minutes of their scheduled time.  The ratings and airline rankings are provided by the United States Transportation Department.  Again, as with most months, Hawaiian Airlines tops the list of airlines, although most airlines did improve over previous months. 

JetBlue had a fantastic surge of on-time success jumping from 15th place last month near the bottom of the list to 5th this month nearing a 90 percent on-time ranking. 

Here are the numbers by airline for September with their August ranking in parentheses to offer perspective on ranking improvement. 

1.  Hawaiian Airlines – 94.1%  (1)

2.  Alaska Airlines – 90.0%  (2)

3.  Southwest Airlines – 89.1%  (6)

4.  Frontier Airlines – 89.1%  (4)

5.  JetBlue – 88.7%  (15)

6.  Continental Airlines – 88.4%  (7)

7.  US Airways – 87.9%  (8)

8.  United Airlines – 87.9%  (9)

9.  SkyWest Airlines* – 87.5%  (3)

10.  ExpressJet Airlines* – 87.3%  (5)

11.  Mesa Airlines* – 87.0%  (11)

12.  Pinnacle Airlines* – 86.6%  (12)

13.  American Airlines – 86.0%  (14)

14.  American Eagle Airlines* – 84.8%  (10)

15.  Northwest Airlines** – 84.5%  (16)

16.  AirTran Airways – 83.4%  (17)

17.  Delta Airlines – 82.2%  (13)

18.  Comair* – 80.5%  (19)

19.  Atlantic Southeast* – 72.2%  (18)

*Denotes regional airline operator mostly comprised of ‘express’ units of the network airlines.

**Northwest Airlines, although acquired by Delta Airlines, continues to post traffic results to the DOT separately.