Airlines in the U.S. posted far better on-time rates in January compared with a year earlier, but O'Hare International Airport was particularly tardy for departures during the month, according to government data released Monday
O'Hare often posts poor on-time rates, but in January more than one-third of its flights departed late for an on-time rate of 64.9 percent, worst among major U.S. airports, according to the U.S. Transportation Department's Air Travel Consumer Report. Departures at Midway were only slightly better, at 71.2 percent.
Overall, U.S. airlines arrived on time 76.8 percent of the time, up from the 67.7 percent in January 2014, which featured thousands of winter storm-related delays and cancellations.
Chicago-based United Airlines and American Airlines, which together dominate O'Hare, ranked seventh and sixth, respectively, for being on time. The airlines with the best on-time rates were Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which struggled with being on time for more than a year and sometimes ranked last, continued its improvement compared with a year earlier. It ranked fifth overall in January and second among large airlines, after Delta.
"It's a great sign, showing the strength of our people and our operation and seeing it all come together," Southwest spokesman Dan Landson said. "We still have room to improve, and we look forward to returning to our top spot."
Southwest was at or near the bottom of U.S. airlines for on-time rates since August 2013, when it added flights to its daily schedule. The change squeezed the time between a plane's arrival and its next departure, leading to delays that cascaded through the carrier's system. But in August, Southwest added time that it allots for flying, taxiing, loading and unloading passengers, and preparing the aircraft for the next flight. It also emphasized getting its first flights of the day out on time.
Southwest has more departures at Midway than any other airport and employs 4,200 there.
Spirit Airlines, an ultralow-cost discount carrier, was included in the DOT report's ranking for the first time in January. Perhaps not surprisingly, its complaint rate was particularly poor, at about eight complaints per 100,000 passengers, four times the average for U.S. airlines. The only worse carrier was Frontier Airlines, also an ultralow-cost discounter.
Read more: Airlines improve on-time rates, but O'Hare fails to benefit