HONOLULU, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- "Our employees have made Hawaiian the best airline in America."
That was the response of Mark Dunkerley, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, upon learning that Hawaii's hometown airline had led the nation's carriers in service performance for 2005 (see chart below), based on year-end data issued in the Air Travel Consumer Report by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Rank On-Time Fewest Baggage Fewest
Service Cancellations Handling Oversales
1 HAWAIIAN HAWAIIAN HAWAIIAN JetBlue
2 SkyWest JetBlue AirTran Independence
3 ATA Frontier Independence HAWAIIAN
4 America West Continental JetBlue SkyWest
5 Southwest Southwest ATA AirTran
This marked the second consecutive year that Hawaiian earned the DOT's top overall scores for excellence with its service.
Dunkerley noted, "The DOT reports have confirmed once again that Hawaiian is indeed the nation's preeminent airline when it comes to customer service and reliability."
As has become its trademark, Hawaiian was the nation's top airline for punctuality in 2005, with 95.1 percent of its flights arriving on schedule. Hawaiian exceeded the industry average of 77.4 percent by an impressive 17.7 percentage points. To meet DOT standards, a flight must arrive within 15 minutes of schedule to be considered on time.
In addition, Hawaiian has now led the airline industry in on-time performance for a remarkable 26 consecutive months.
Hawaiian also finished 2005 as the nation's best airline for handling customers' luggage, averaging an industry-low 2.95 mishandled baggage reports for every 1,000 passengers.
Moreover, the DOT report data shows that Hawaiian led the industry in fewest cancelled flights during the year, with only 0.1 percent cancellations out of more than 48,000 total flights.
Hawaiian also recorded the industry's third-best record for fewest oversales, with only 38 involuntary denied boardings from the more than 5.8 million passengers carried in 2005.
The DOT report covers 20 airlines, including eight carriers providing service to Hawaii. The full report is available online at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr06.htm.
About Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines, the nation's number one on-time carrier, is recognized as one of the best airlines in America. Consumer travel surveys conducted by Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Zagat all rank Hawaiian as the top domestic airline serving Hawaii.
Now in its 77th year of continuous service in Hawaii, Hawaiian is the state's biggest and longest-serving airline, and the second largest provider of passenger air service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawaii from more U.S. gateway cities than any other airline (nine), as well as service to Australia, American Samoa and Tahiti. Hawaiian also provides approximately 100 daily jet flights among the Hawaiian Islands.
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. is a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. . Additional information is available online at HawaiianAirlines.com.
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