The U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed that Hawaiian Airlines is the nation’s most punctual airline, with 95.3 percent of its flights arriving as scheduled during October. Hawaiian has held this record every month since it began reporting to DOT a
The U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed that Hawaiian Airlines is the nation’s most punctual airline, with 95.3 percent of its flights arriving as scheduled during October. Hawaiian has held this record every month since it began reporting to DOT a year ago.
“HAL once stood for Hawaiian’s Always Late,” said airline Trustee Joshua Gotbaum. “Not any more. Everyone at Hawaiian has pulled together to create one of the best airlines in the nation. For the past seven months, Hawaiian’s been on time 95 percent of the time or better. No other airline’s managed that even for a single month.”
Hawaiian achieved this turnaround by changing how passengers were boarded and deplaned, how bags were loaded, and how aircraft were cleaned and catered. Hawaiian’s interisland operations have more than 100 daily flights. The short trips connecting Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii’s Big Island are scheduled with only 25 minutes on the ground between flights.
A single delay can have a “domino effect” and carry over to departures and arrivals for the rest of the day. Hawaiian has averaged 93.3 percent on-time arrivals for the past 12 months. The industry average for the same period is 78.5 percent. Following Hawaiian, the next closest airline nationally is JetBlue Airways at 83.1 percent, while the next closest airline serving Hawaii is ATA Airlines at 79.5 percent. According to DOT standards, on-time service requires a flight to arrive within 15 minutes of schedule. The DOT also reported that Hawaiian tied with Jet- Blue Airways and Continental Airlines for the lowest percentage of canceled flights in October at 0.1 percent, representing only five cancellations out of 3,856 total flights. Hawaiian ranked fourth best among all airlines during October with 2.63 mishandled baggage reports per 1,000 passengers. Hawaiian served 441,927 passengers in October.
The DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report for October is available online at www.airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr04.htm.
