The largest U.S. airlines' rate of on-time flights this past March was lower than in the same month last year but higher than the rate recorded in February, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 71.6 percent in March, below March 2007’s 73.3 percent but better than February 2008’s 68.6 percent. Aloha Airlines, which reported on-time performance voluntarily, recently ceased operations, reducing the number of reporting carriers from 20 to 19.

In March, the carriers canceled 2.6 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, the same rate recorded in March 2007 but down from February 2008’s 3.6 percent.

In March, the carriers filing on-time performance data reported that 8.56 percent of their flights were delayed by aviation system delays; 8.87 percent by late-arriving aircraft; 7.11 percent by factors within the airline’s control; 0.93 percent by extreme weather; and 0.07 percent for security reasons.

Weather is a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays due to the re-routing of flights by DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration in consultation with the carriers involved. Weather is also a factor in delays attributed to late-arriving aircraft, although airlines do not report specific causes in that category.

The U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 6.66 reports per 1,000 passengers in March, an improvement over March 2007’s rate of 7.74 but above February 2008’s 6.39 rate. For the first three months of this year, the carriers posted a 6.81 mishandled baggage rate, down from the 8.05 rate for January-March 2007.

In March, the department received 1,013 complaints about airline service from consumers, down 22.5 percent from the 1,307 complaints filed in March 2007 but 8.2 percent more than the total of 936 received in February 2008. For the first quarter of this year, the Department received 3,121 air service complaints, up 8.1 percent from the 2,887 complaints filed during the first three months of 2007.

Airline On-Time Arrival Pct March 2008

1. Hawaiian, 94.52
2. US Airways, 79.13
3. Alaska, 77.97
4. Skywest, 77.76
5. Mesa, 75.76
6. Southwest, 74.42
7. Frontier, 73.41
8. Delta, 71.74
9. United, 71.66
10. Pinnacle, 71.46
11. JetBlue, 70.69
12. Northwest, 70.14
13. AirTran, 69.97
14. Atlantic Southeast, 69.13
15. Continental, 68.38
16. ExpressJet, 67.80
17. American Eagle, 66.40
18. Comair, 66.05
19. American, 61.96
All Airlines 71.58

Airline On-Time Arrival Pct Year-to-Date Jan-Mar 2008

1. Hawaiian, 93.95
2. US Airways, 78.35
3. Alaska, 75.88
4. Delta, 75.75
5. Frontier, 74.97
6. Southwest, 74.84
7. JetBlue, 71.72
8. Continental, 71.01
9. SkyWest, 70.87
10. AirTran, 70.78
11. Northwest, 69.53
12. Atlantic Southeast, 69.41
13. ExpressJet, 69.41
14. Mesa, 69.12
15. Pinnacle, 68.14
16. Comair, 66.73
17. United, 66.40
18. American Eagle, 64.38
19. American, 63.38
20. Aloha, 94.33*
All Airlines 70.91

* Aloha stopped reporting on-time data after February