The airline industry improved its on-time performance in December and for the full year, helped by a rash of flight cuts that helped ease congestion.

Nearly 66 percent of flights operated by 19 of the country's largest carriers arrived on time in December, up from 64 percent a year earlier, according to the latest government data.

The industry's on-time arrival performance for the year also edged up - to 76 percent from 73 percent in 2007.

Still, it was the fifth-poorest performance on record. And fewer than half of scheduled flights arrived on time in six of the 10 busiest holiday travel days, from Dec. 19 through Dec. 28, according to industry data tracker FlightStats.com.

Denver International Airport had a solid showing, moving up five notches in the rankings to finish ninth in on-time arrivals. More than 78 percent of DIA's flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule in 2008 compared with nearly 76 percent a year earlier.

The airport also improved in December with 66 percent of its flight arriving on time vs. 59 percent for the same month a year earlier.

Two of Denver's carriers - Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines - helped propel DIA's numbers.

Southwest Airlines finished second last year, while homegrown Frontier Airlines ranked fifth. United Airlines - DIA's dominant carrier - came in 17th, though it improved significantly over the last three months of the year.

American Airlines was at the bottom among the 19 reporting airlines in on-time performance, while Hawaiian was at the top.

Many airlines cut capacity and made other changes as they struggled to adapt to high fuel prices last summer, a stumbling economy and a dip in travel demand.

The decrease in flights helped airlines cut down on delays and mishandled bags. But some have struggled compared to their peers.

Regional carrier Comair, a unit of Delta Air Lines Inc., had the worst on-time performance in December, while Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance in the month.

The carriers filing on-time performance data attributed 10.6 percent of their flight delays in December to the nation's aviation system, 11.1 percent to late-arriving aircraft and 7.7 percent to factors within the airline's control such as maintenance or crew problems. There also was heavy snow in parts of the country around Christmas and in the final days of December.

Rocky wire services contributed to this report.

OVERALL RANKINGS

The following are the rankings of 19 airlines' on-time performance in December.

Carrier, on-time arrival percentage

Hawaiian, 79.58

US Airways, 72.14

American, 69.86

United, 67.56

Southwest, 67.25

AirTran, 66.41

Delta, 65.68

Mesa, 65.65

ExpressJet, 65.33

Northwest, 63.69

Continental, 63.32

Pinnacle, 63.10

JetBlue, 62.76

SkyWest, 62.45

Atlantic Southeast, 62.10

Frontier, 60.74

American Eagle, 59.32

Alaska, 58.43

Comair, 55.05

All airlines, 65.34

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