More than 28 percent of commercial flights in the United States arrived late, were canceled or diverted in March, according to Transportation Department data released Wednesday. It was the worst March on record and second-worst opening quarter for a year since comparable data began being collected in 1995.
Still, March's results were slightly better than February's, when more than 31 percent of flights arrived late, were canceled or diverted.
Miami International Airport ranked 29th-worst in on-time arrival during March, out of the 32 largest airports, the report shows. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport ranked 28th-worst.
At Miami International Airport, flights were late on arrival 35.4 percent of the time, and late on departure 32.0 percent of the time during March.
At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, March flights were late on arrival 33.9 percent of the time and late on departure 29.4 percent of the time, the report shows.
Miramar-based Spirit Airines again ranked fifth among all airlines for the highest number of consumer complaints. Spirit had 82 complaints in March out of 909 complaints filed. Most of the complaints against Spirit were related to reservations, ticketing and boarding; flight problems; refunds; baggage; and customer service, the report shows.
One reason for the continued period of historically poor performance is that airlines are replacing big planes with smaller ones to fly with fewer empty seats. But that crowds the skies and gates, analysts say.
AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, had the worst March with only 62 percent of its flights arriving on time. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate at nearly 95 percent.
Reports of mishandled baggage improved in March to about 6.7 per 1,000 passengers from more than 7.7 reports in the same month last year.
Passenger complaints also fell to 1,013 from 1,307 in the year-ago period.
But the industry is struggling to deal with jet fuel costs that have risen more than 60 percent in the last year, contributing to a handful of small airlines declaring bankruptcy, and two larger ones -- Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines -- announcing plans to combine.
Miami Herald business writer Ina Paiva Cordle contributed to this report.
