America's most punctual airlines revealed

Flights in the US were more on time in 2010 than in 2009, according to figures released February 10 by the US Department for Transportation, with Hawaiian taking the top spot.

The 18 major carriers in the US reported 79.8 percent of flights were on time last year, compared to 79.5 in 2009, despite several significant disruptions to travel caused by severe weather.

The most on-time airline (92.5 percent) was Hawaiian Airlines, taking the award for the seventh straight year - no doubt helped by nearly-permanent good weather at its hub at Honolulu International Airport.

Alaska, which can't boast the same advantage, still managed to be the second most punctual carrier at 87.6 percent, followed by the first major airline, United Airlines, which ended the year with 85.2 percent of its flights arriving at their destination within 14 minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

AirTran, Continental, Frontier and US Airways all kept their punctuality to within the 80 percent range, but the worst was Comair, which landed only 73.1 percent of its flights on time.

AirTran also managed by far the lowest number of mishandled baggage reports, with only 1.63 reports per 1000 passengers - at the other end of the scale, American Eagle lost 7.15 bags per 1,000 passengers despite flying just under 10 million more people.

JetBlue, Hawaiian and AirTran reported the fewest denied boardings, with American Eagle again at the bottom of the table.

Read the full report at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr11.htm