Airlines worse on flying performance, better on baggage, report says

The odds of commercial flights being late or canceled were worse in August than a year earlier, according to the Department of Transportation.

The airlines covered in the data reported arriving on-time about 77.1 percent of the time, which is down from 77.6 percent in August 2016 but up from the 76.9 percent on-time rate they posted in July.

Spirit Airlines, the sole carrier at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, was on time 76.9 percent of the time in August, according to the report. Among the carriers at Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay, Delta Air Lines has the best on-time percentage at 87.4 percent, while JetBlue Airways had one of the worst at 68.1 percent.

The airlines canceled about 2.2 percent of scheduled domestic flights, which is worse than the August 2016 rate of 1.4 percent and the July rate of 1.1 percent.

Spirit had the third-highest cancellation rate at 3.4 percent. United Airlines had the second-highest rate among the carriers and the highest rate among the Pittsburgh carriers at 4.0 percent. Delta had the lowest rate, with 0.2 percent of its flights canceled.

Airlines reported mishandling baggage at a rate of 2.45 reports per 1,000 passengers on domestic flights in August, which was better than the August 2016 rate of 3.15 and the July rate of 2.79. Spirit posted 1.65 reports per 1,000 passengers, the second-best rate. Delta had the best rate at 1.44 reports per 1,000 passengers, while Southwest Airlines was second worst among all carriers and the worst among the Pittsburgh carriers at 3.16 reports per 1,000 passengers.