Hawaiian Airlines said a shift in the wind blew it off course in February and resulted in the worst monthly on-time performance in more than a decade.
The state’s largest carrier, which has led all U.S. airlines in on-time performance for the last 13 years in a row, finished ninth among 12 carriers in February with only 78.2 percent of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It was the first time since July that Hawaiian had not finished in the top spot. Hawaiian averaged a 91.1 percent on-time performance rating last year.
“While it wasn’t obvious when looking up at the sky, weather played a major factor,” Hawaiian Chief Operating Officer Jon Snook said in a memo to employees. “On many more days during this February than in prior years, the northeasterly (trade) winds that normally cool our islands and ensure smooth operations shifted to a southwesterly (Kona) direction. This Kona wind pattern forced the Honolulu Control Facility to reverse the direction of takeoffs and landings at HNL, resulting in a slower arrival rate for our aircraft. These delays were exacerbated by the late delivery of our newest B717, which left us without a spare aircraft to put into the rotation to mitigate delays.”
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The on-time performance in February of the largest U.S. airlines. A flight is considered on time if it arrives less than 15 minutes after its scheduled arrival time:
1. Delta Air Lines 89.5%
2. American Airlines 85.2%
3. ExpressJet Airlines 82.4%
4. Southwest Airlines 82.4%
5. Frontier Airlines 82.3%
6. Spirit Airlines 81.6%
7. United Airlines 81.5%
8. Skywest Airlines 79.8%
9. Hawaiian Airlines 78.2%
10. Alaska Airlines 77.6%
11. JetBlue Airways 72.3%
12. Virgin America 64.6%
U.S. average 82.6%
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
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Delta Air Lines led the month with 89.5 percent of its flights arriving on time while Virgin America, which is now owned by Alaska Airlines, brought up the rear at 64.6 percent. The U.S. average for the 12 largest U.S. carriers was 82.6 percent.
The previous low mark for Hawaiian was in August 2015 when just 81.5 percent of its flights arrived on time. Hawaiian CEO Mark Dunkerley blamed the drop at the time to a shortage of gates due to increased airlift and the state’s airport modernization project that led to delays in processing passengers. The airline began reporting statistics to the DOT in January 2004.
Hawaiian spokesman Alex Da Silva said Hawaiian’s performance has since rebounded from February and is hovering around 90 percent this month.
In DOT’s most recent Air Travel Consumer Report, Hawaiian also finished ninth in February for fewest mishandled-baggage reports with 2.91 per 1,000 passengers. That represented 2,185 reports out of 751,640 passengers. Virgin America was first with 1.24 while Skywest Airlines was last at 3.56. The U.S. average was 2.16.
Hawaiian placed seventh for fewest consumer complaints with 1.35 per 100,000 passengers. That represented just 11 complaints. Southwest Airlines was first at 0.32 while Virgin America was last at 3.63. The U.S. average was 1.02.
On a positive note, Hawaiian had the fewest cancellations of any airline with just 0.2 percent of its operations canceled. That represented 13 out of 5,789 scheduled flights. JetBlue Airways was the worst with 4.4 percent of its flights canceled. The U.S. average was 1.5 percent.
