Hawaiian Airlines remained the US airline to take if you want to arrive on time in 2018 as it chalked up its 15th successive year as the nation’s most punctual airline.
The airline’s 87.8 percent on-time arrival rate for the year made it a clear winner and was 8.6 percentage points ahead of the national on-time arrival average of 79.2 percent.
Other airline networks with an above-average performance included Alaska Airlines (82.7 percent of arrivals on time), Delta Air Lines (83.2 percent) and Spirit Airlines (81.1 percent).
Southwest Airlines sat on the national average with 79.2 percent of its aircraft arriving on time.
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Of the other two major carrier networks, United Airlines just edged out American Airlines with 77.9 percent of its flights arriving on time compared to 77.4 percent of its rival’s services.
The worst performer was Frontier Airlines with an on-time arrival figure of 69.4 percent. It trailed rivals JetBlue Airways (71 percent) and Allegiant Air (76.9 percent).
Hawaiian is celebrating its 90th anniversary and Hawaiian chief executive Peter Ingram said the punctuality win reflected the meticulous focus and commitment of its employees.
“Nature presented us with some operational challenges last year, including increased volcanic activity in East Hawai’i and flooding on both ends of the Island chain, and our teams worked together to keep our flights operating safely and as punctually as possible,’’ he said.
The carrier will launch its 13th North American destination on April 4 when it starts non-stop service between Honolulu and Boston.
The new service continues the growth that has seen Hawaiian expand its international network in the last 15 years with service to Sydney, Haneda and Narita airports in Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Sapporo, Brisbane and Auckland.
Its 260-plus daily flights include more than 170 daily services operated on average between the Hawaiian Islands using Boeing 717-200 aircraft.
