January 2012 saw the major US airlines getting passengers to their destinations on time at a higher rate than any January during the past 18 years. This is according to data released on Thursday by the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In addition, the number of flight cancelations were reduced as were the number of mishandled bags. The reason for these good statistics seems to be the warmer winter and calmer weather, according to analysts.
A mere 0.33% of domestic flights were delayed due to bad weather in January, as opposed to 5.02% of flights that were delayed due to problems with the aviation system. The average on-time arrival rate for airlines in January was 83.7%, in contrast to 76.3% in January of last year. There were 3.30 reports of mishandled luggage per 1000 passengers, as opposed to 4.29 reports in January of 2011. Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, said that the airlines have been working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to improve flight air traffic control procedures and to improve and upgrade technology.
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