The 6.2 million total flights operated by the 10 largest U.S.-based carriers in 2021 exceeded the 2020 total but was only 78 percent of the 2019 figure of 7.9 million, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest Air Travel Consumer Report, issued Monday. 

The report includes airlines that have at least 0.5 percent of total domestic scheduled service passenger revenue plus any branded codeshare partners.

The same airlines reported canceling more than 111,000 flights in 2021, or 1.76 percent of their schedule, down from 1.9 percent in 2019. Hawaiian Airlines canceled the smallest share of its flights, at 0.4 percent, followed by Delta Air Lines at 0.6 percent and Frontier Airlines at 1.4 percent. Those with the highest percentage of cancellations were Allegiant Air (3.3 percent), Spirit Airlines (3 percent) and Southwest Airlines (2.2 percent).

Hawaiian also had the best annual on-time performance at 90.1 percent, followed by Delta (88.2 percent) and Alaska Airlines (83.2 percent). The lowest three were Allegiant (68.3 percent), JetBlue Airways (72.3 percent) and Southwest (75.8 percent). A flight is considered on time if it arrives less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time.

In 2021, the 10 carriers handled nearly 393 million bags, with a rate of 5.1 mishandled bags per 1,000 checked, which was higher than the 2020 rate of 4.1, but lower than the 2019 rate of 5.9. 

DOT received just shy of 50,000 complaints in 2021, down 51 percent from the total but up 225 percent from 2019. About 59 percent of the 2021 complaints concerned refunds.