Delta leads airlines in on-time flights

United, American close to top in March rankings; Virgin America has highest rate of delayed flights.

Delta Air Lines scored the best for on-time flights in the latest government rankings, and United and American weren’t far behind.

Virgin America had the highest rate of delayed flights, and discount carrier Spirit Airlines drew the highest rate of consumer complaints.

The Transportation Department released figures for March on Tuesday. The report covers the 12 largest U.S. airlines.

Through the first three months of the year, airlines bumped one in every 16,000 passengers off a flight — the same rate as in early 2016.

More commonly, airlines find volunteers to give up their seats on overbooked flights — that happened to about one in every 1,500 passengers, slightly less often than in early 2016.

JetBlue had the highest rate of bumping, which it says can occur when a smaller plane replaces a larger one. Delta had the lowest bumping rate and the highest number of volunteers who gave up their seats.

A national debate about bumping and customer service erupted in April after videos showed a man being forcibly pulled off a United Express plane. He had refused to give up his seat to make room for an airline crew member.

United ranks in the middle of the pack for bumping passengers against their will.

In March, 79.9 percent of flights on the 12 largest airlines arrived on time — that’s within 14 minutes of schedule. That was down from the 81.5 percent rate in March 2016.

Del t a had a n 8 6.9 perc e nt on-time rate, followed by Hawai- ian, United and American. Only 65.5 percent of Virgin America flights arrived on time.

Airlines canceled 1.8 percent of domestic flights, up from 1.0 percent a year earlier.

Consumer complaints filed with the government fell by nearly one-third, with Spirit continuing to have the highest complaint rate. The lowest rate belonged to ExpressJet, which operates regional flights for bigger airlines.

Many more consumers complain directly to the airlines, but the carriers do not disclose those figures.

The statistics were released just as Canadian officials placed the spotlight on a new rule barring the removal of passengers from a flight that is overbooked.

Transportation Minister Marc Garneau said no one who has bought a ticket for a domestic or international flight in Canada will be allowed to be removed because of overbooking under a new passenger bill of rights.

Garneau said the rules would ensure “travelers are treated like people and not numbers.” The minister’s comments were seen as a response to the United Airlines incident.

Garneau said if airlines can’t get a volunteer with a minimum level of compensation, they will have to increase the amount offered.

“When Canadians buy an airline ticket they expect the airline to keep its part of the deal,” he said.

Minimum compensation standards would also be set for damaged baggage.

The regulations would additionally increase the cap on foreign ownership of airlines from 25 to 49 percent.

The government hopes to have the new regulations in place in 2018.

They are contained in legislation that must get the nod from Canada’s Parliament, but passage is assured because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party holds a majority of seats.