("US Airlines' On-Time Performance Improves Again In February," published Thursday at 11:42 a.m. EDT, misstated the Bureau of Transportation Statistics' name. The corrected version follows.)

 
   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

U.S. airlines' on-time and baggage-handling performance improved again in February from January and from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday.

Alaska Air Group Inc.'s (ALK) Alaska Airlines had the worst on-time performance in February at 76.3%, while Hawaiian Airlines again had the best, with a 91.2% rate.

The DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance had an overall rate of 82.6%, up from 68.6% a year earlier and 77% in January. The agency said the carriers canceled 1.2% of their scheduled flights, down from 3.6% in the prior year and 2.3% in January.

The on-time performance results in February were the fourth-best of the 15 years with comparable numbers for the month. A flight is counted as "on time" if it operated less than 15 minutes after the scheduled time shown in the carriers' computerized reservation systems.

The airlines overall had a rate of mishandled baggage of 3.56 per 1,000 passengers in February, down from 6.41 in February 2008 and 5.2 in January.

The DOT received 576 complaints in February, down from 937 a year earlier and 884 in January.

Comair Ltd. (COM.JO) improved to post the second-worst on-time arrival rate in the month at 76.6%, and Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) was third-worst at 77.7%.

The most frequently delayed flight for the month was Delta Air Lines Inc.'s (DAL) flight 2008 from Savannah, Ga., to Atlanta, Ga., which was late 94.1% of the time.

Baltimore's airport had the best on-time arrival performance in February, while Newark, N.J., again had the worst, the BTS said.

-By Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089; kerry.grace@dowjones.com