DOT: Airlines had best-ever November for lost bags, canceled flights

WASHINGTON – Airlines canceled the fewest flights and reported the least mishandled baggage in November for the decades that the federal government has tracked those statistics, the Transportation Department announced Tuesday.

Airlines canceled 0.29% of their domestic flights in November, which was the lowest rate since the records began in January 1995, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The cancellation rate beat the previous low of 0.33% in September, according to the bureau’s Air Travel Consumer Report. For comparison, airlines reported canceling 1% of their flights in the month before the record low and the same month a year earlier.

Delta, Alaska and Frontier had the lowest rates of canceled flights for November. ExpressJet, SkyWest and Spirit had the highest rates.

The airlines also has 2.02 reports of mishandled bags for each 1,000 passengers in November, which was the lowest since the reporting began in 1987. The previous low rate was 2.06 in October. For comparison, the mishandled-bag rate was 2.53 in November 2015.

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While they didn’t hit record levels, airlines reported that more of their flights were punctual in November.

Airlines reported their flights landed within 15 minutes of their schedules 86.5% of the time in November, compared to 85.5% in October and 83.7% for the same month a year earlier.

Hawaiian, Delta and Alaska were the three most punctual airlines. Virgin America, ExpressJet and JetBlue had the lowest on-time arrival rates.

The department is investigating two lengthy tarmac delays, which can result in fines against airlines when passengers can’t get off a domestic flight for at least three hours.

Southwest Airlines flight 3227 on Nov. 15 was delayed 3 hours and 25 minutes in Oklahoma City after a flight from Denver.

United Airlines flight 775 to Las Vegas on Nov. 17 was delayed 3 hours and 9 minutes in Denver.

As performance improved, complaints declined. The Transportation Department received 1,020 complaints from airline passengers in November, about 20% fewer than the 1,267 the month before and from the 1,305 from the same month a year earlier.