Airlines had 'best January' for getting there on time

— -- The nation's largest airlines began 2012 by getting passengers to their destinations on time at the best rate of any January in 18 years, new data released by the Transportation Department on Thursday show.

Flight cancellations also were down in January as were the number of mishandled bags, the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.

Airlines last year had one of their best records for getting passengers and bags to their destinations on time. Analysts attribute the streak to an unusually mild winter. In fact, just 0.33% of domestic flights in January were delayed because of extreme weather. By comparison, 5.02% of flights delayed were caused by aviation system issues.

The airlines had an on-time arrival rate of 83.7%, up from 76.3% in January 2011. Still, that was down slightly from December 2011's 84.4% rate. Flights are considered on time when they arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. Airlines canceled only 1.5% of flights, down from 3.9% a year ago the same time, but up from December 2011's 0.8%.

There were 3.30 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, down from 4.29 in January 2011. It was also lower than December 2011's mishandled baggage rate of 3.37.

Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, which represents the biggest airlines, says carriers have been working with the Federal Aviation Administration to improve air traffic control procedures and upgrade technology to help reduce congestion in the air.

"Our members are improving their operations, demonstrating their commitment to a better customer experience, built on the foundation of getting passengers to their destinations safely and on time," he says.

But airline analyst Mike Boyd of the Boyd Group points out that nearly 20% of flights are still delayed. Considering that many travelers don't fly direct but connect to other flights, having that high a delay rate can wreak havoc, he says. He blames a poor air traffic control system. "It's less bad, not an improvement," he says of January's on-time performance numbers.

No domestic flights sat on an airport tarmac for more than three hours, and no international flights lingered for longer than four hours in January. The large U.S. airlines are required to report long tarmac delays, as are foreign airlines flying in and out of U.S. airports.

Despite the improved performance, consumer complaints continued to rise. There were 708 complaints about U.S. airlines in January, compared with 685 the same time a year ago.

Hawaiian Airlines, which benefits from mild weather, had the highest on-time arrival rate. AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines, which are merging, rounded out the top three airlines in terms of on-time arrivals.

The airlines with the lowest on-time arrival rates were: Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and ExpressJet Airlines.