Hawaiian is Nation’s Top On-Time Airline, Again

Hawaiian Airlines, photo by Wendy Osher.

By Sonia Isotov

According to the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Hawaiian Airlines is still the nation’s #1 on-time airline for an eighth straight year.

For 2011, Hawaiian averaged a 92.8% on-time performance ranking #1 in 11 of the 12 months and exceeding the industry average for the year by 13.2%, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report issued today for December and the full year 2011.

For the month of December, Hawaiian’s on-time performance was 91.05, ranking second to AirTran Airways at 91.9%.

“To achieve a nearly 93% on-time rate over the entire year reflects the dedication that Hawaiian’s employees bring to the job every day to provide our customers with the very best in service and reliability,” said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian’s president and chief executive officer, in a written statement.

“We congratulate AirTran Airways for earning the top spot in December and we look forward to the challenge of regaining that position in 2012.”

Hawaiian also had the industry’s best overall results for fewest flight cancellations in 2011, earning the #1 ranking in 8 of the 12 months as reported in DOT’s monthly reports. Hawaiian had 122 cancellations out of 66,740 total flights in 2011, an average of approximately 0.2% for the year. In December, Hawaiian had a nearly perfect score with only two cancellations out of 5,523 total flights.

In the category of passengers denied boarding (or over sales), which are reported quarterly, Hawaiian had the industry’s second-lowest rate of 0.11 per 10,000 passengers for 2011, or 92 cases out of more than 8.6 million passengers. Hawaiian also ranked second overall in fourth quarter 2011 with a rate of 0.26 per 10,000 passengers, representing 55 cases out of more than 2.1 million passengers.

The DOT report is available at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr12.htm.