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Cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages are all the sweeter when your plane departs and arrives on time. 2011 marked one of the best on time airline performances in years. Despite unexpected snowstorms and Tropical Storm Irene, the nation’s major airlines were on time just shy of 80 percent of the time last year, the fourth best performance in the last 17 years. Airlines were on time over 84 percent in December which was the highest percent for any December since records started to be kept 17 years ago. The airlines fourth quarter on time performance was the best on record. Carriers also experienced their lowest December cancellation rate over the last 17 years. Just 0.8 percent of flights were canceled in December vs. 3.7 percent December of the prior year. No domestic flights sat on runways in excess of three hours in December. No international flights were left sitting on runways for over four hours, which is the federally mandated maximum time for such flights. Since the Department of Transportation imposed new runway delay rules in April of 2010 only one airline, American Eagle, has been fined for exceeding runway time limits. Airlines baggage handling performance improved in 2011. Carriers ran a mishandled baggage rate of 3.39 per 1,000 last year vs. 3.51 in 2010. Not only was 2011 an all time low for mishandled bags, it meant that 99.7 percent of U.S. airline passengers had their bags delivered on time. More good news was on the bumped passenger front. The bumping rate of passengers in 2011 was 0.71 per 10,000 passengers down from 0.8 in 2010.
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