The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) last week released its full year Air Travel Consumer Report for 2020, finding that airlines operated 4.72 million flights last year, off more than 40 percent from the 7.94 million flights in 2019.
The DOT report noted the 2020 number was the lowest number of total annual flights since reporting began in 1987.
For the full year 2020, carriers posted an aggregate on-time arrival rate of 84.5 percent, a higher rate than 79.0 percent in 2019. The leading airlines in terms of on-time arrival last year were Hawaiian Airlines at 87.5 percent, followed by Delta Air Lines and Spirit Airlines.
The lowest on-time arrival rates were by Allegiant Air (71.3 percent), JetBlue Airways (82.1 percent) and the American Airlines network (82.3 percent), the DOT report found, adding that canceled flights are included in calculations of on-time arrival performance.
In 2020, airlines reported 55 tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights, a decrease from the 305 such tarmac delays reported in 2019, the DOT report found. In 2020, airlines reported six tarmac delays of more than four hours on international flights, compared to 26 such tarmac delays reported in 2019.
