DOT says airlines operated fewer on-time flights in February amid winter storms

Airlines operate fewer on-time flights in February

NEW YORK — The Department of Transportation says U.S. airlines operated fewer on-time flights in February, as massive snow storms hampered operations at some of the largest East Coast airports.

Sixty-one flights were delayed for at least three hours during the month— triple the number of those delays in January. It was the highest number of 3-hout tarmac delays since August 2009.

DOT said cancellations also soared in February due to storms. Airlines canceled 5.5 percent of their scheduled domestic flights that month, compared with 2.5 percent in January and 1.2 percent in February 2009.

Hawaiian Airlines, largely isolated from bad weather, held its usual spot on top of the on-time rankings.

The worst at arriving on time were Comair, Pinnacle and JetBlue.