Feds: Airline on-time performance improved in August

In case you missed this story earlier today on the USA TODAY Travel website, reporter Nancy Trejos writes:

Good weather helped U.S. airlines get passengers and their bags to their destinations at a better clip in August than July, the government reported Thursday.

Unlike in July, when passengers on 18 flights were stuck on airport tarmacs for hours, no airline held passengers on the tarmac longer than three hours on flights inside the U.S. in August, the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.

Only one airline, Caribbean Airlines, kept passengers on an international flight for more than four hours, the bureau reported. That four-hour-and-28-minute delay, which occurred on an Aug. 15 Caribbean Airlines flight from New York's JFK Airport to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, is under investigation by the department.

Passengers on domestic flights aren't supposed to be held on planes for more than three hours on domestic flights or for more than four hours on international flights without being allowed to get off.

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