The Aviation Consumer Protection Division reported fewer complaints in March, the Department of Transportation said this week.
Overall, complaints fell by 17.7 percent compared with March 2015 and 5 percent less than February 2016. Air carriers that reported said timeliness was achieved in approximately 81.5 percent of flights. On-time flights were completed approximately 78.7 percent of the time in March 2015.
Total complaints were 1,429 in March 2016 compared with 1,736 a year ago and 1,504 in February.
Approximately 1 percent of scheduled domestic U.S. flights were canceled, and seven tarmac delays above three hours were reported in March. Of these, six were associated with a snowstorm in Denver that took place on March 23.
These statistics were released as part of the Air Travel Consumer Report, which also includes information on reported complaints about baggage, reservations, refunds, oversells and other issues. This information is reported to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
The three airlines with the lowest cancellation rates were JetBlue Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Hawaiian, Delta and Alaska Airlines posted the highest on-time arrival rates.
