Airlines boost on-time rating but storms create long delays

WASHINGTON — The latest government report shows airlines doing a little better at arriving on time.

The Transportation Department said Tuesday that 80.5 percent of flights operated by the leading airlines were on time in May, up from 76.9 percent in May 2014.

But the on-time rating is down slightly from April, and 16 flights were stuck on the tarmac longer than federal rules allow. Ten of those flights were on the same stormy day at Bush Airport in Houston.

Spirit Airlines has the highest complaint rate among the 14 airlines covered in the report.

Here are the government’s rankings of the leading airlines and their on-time performance for May. The federal government counts a flight as on time if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.

• 1. Hawaiian Airlines, 90.9 percent
• 2. Alaska Airlines, 88.0 percent
• 3. Delta Air Lines, 87.2 percent
• 4. US Airways, 84.5 percent
• 5. JetBlue Airways, 84.3 percent
• 6. SkyWest, 82.1 percent
• 7. Southwest Airlines, 78.6 percent
• 8. American Airlines, 78.3 percent
• 9. ExpressJet, 77.6 percent
• 10. Envoy Air, 77.1 percent
• 11. United Airlines, 76.6 percent
• 12. Virgin America, 76.0 percent
• 13. Frontier Airlines, 73.1 percent
• 14. Spirit Airlines, 61.2 percent