Skift Take
On-time arrival and departure rates often have more to do with location and weather than actual operations; however, steep drops or inclines in performance can highlight an underlying problem.
Airline passengers traveling through the western half of the United States can expect their flight to arrive and depart on-time more than anywhere else in the country, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Airlines with most of their routes in that region -- like Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Air -- have the highest on-time arrival and departure dates, as do the airports in Salt Lake City and Seattle.
Overall, airlines’ on-time arrival performance was poor in comparison to the previous 20 years.
Only 74.4 percent of flights arrived on time in the seventh-month period between January and July, the sixth lowest in twenty years. The cancellation rate for this period, 2.9 percent, was the third highest in twenty years.
Airlines and airports will quickly point to this January's "polar vortex" as the culprit behind the poor numbers in the east and the midwest.
Salt Lake City International Airport has the highest on-t
