Sans hurricanes, air travel more predictable in October

Air travel was comparatively hassle-free in October compared with the previous month, when a pair of hurricanes wreaked havoc on airline schedules.

Hawaiian and Delta were tops for on-time arrivals, while Virgin America lagged.

The Transportation Department said Tuesday that 84.8 percent of flights on the biggest 12 carriers arrived on time in October, an improvement from September, but down from 85.5 percent the previous October.

Airlines canceled 0.7 percent of domestic flights, down from 3.3 percent in September and 1.0 percent in October 2016. Hurricanes Irma in Florida and Maria in the Caribbean caused a surge of cancellations in September.

Complaints against U.S. airlines fell 12 percent to 741, a tiny fraction of the people who flew on roughly a half-million flights.

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The Transportation Department report: http://bit.ly/2l3jbgq