Weather takes a toll on air travel in U.S.

U.S. airline delays worsened in January as congestion and poor weather strained the nation’s air travel system.

Carriers’ on-time arrival rate was 73.1%, down from 78.8% in January 2006, the Transportation Department said Monday. Only 2005 had a lower January rate, at 71.4%, since the U.S. began keeping track of the data in 1999.

The on-time arrival rate may be even lower for February because of air-travel disruptions caused by winter storms in the Northeast, the nation’s busiest airspace. JetBlue Airways Corp. canceled more than 1,000 flights after a Feb. 14 storm crippled its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

“It’s going to keep getting a lot worse,” said airport and airline consultant Mike Boyd of Boyd Group in Evergreen, Colo. “We just need to revamp the entire air traffic control system.”

US Airways Group Inc. said it experienced a second day of delays and long lines Monday after the change to a new computer system knocked out automated airport ticket kiosks in Charlotte, N.C., and other cities.

Phoenix-based US Airways was trying to resolve problems that began Sunday when it moved its computer reservation system to the one used by America West Holdings Corp. as part of the 2005 merger of the carriers. Customers use the kiosks to check in for flights and print boarding passes.

Of the 10 largest U.S. carriers, Southwest Airlines Co. had the highest on-time rate in January at 82.4%. AMR Corp.’s American Airlines was lowest with 67.4%. Among all carriers, Hawaiian Airlines’ on-time arrival rate ranked first with 91.9% while regional airline SkyWest Inc. was last with 65%.

Baggage complaints rose to 8.19 for every 1,000 passengers, an 18% increase from a year earlier. Overall complaints, covering pricing, service and other areas, fell to 0.99 for every 100,000 passengers from a year-earlier rate of 1.14, the study found.