More Airplanes on Time in April, or Less Planes in the Air?

(MoneyWatch)  The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that American airlines were more on time in April at a rate of 79.1 percent. The airline with the most on-time flights was Hawaiian Airlines with 91.1. percent. The lowest was Delta Air Lines subsidiary, Comair, which had an on-time rate of 68.6 percent.

With dropped airline capacity, scrapped flights and routes and fewer passengers, I'm not surprised the on-time rate rose slightly from 78.4 percent in March. With less flights, including those making the least amount of profit, an airline can concentrate on fewer flights in a smaller sphere. How can you not get your act together with fewer planes, routes and customers?

"If we need to take out more capacity, we'll do it and we can do it," Thomas W. Horton, chief financial officer for American Airlines' parent AMR Corp. told the Associated Press last March.

So, I'm not thinking that airlines are more efficient as a whole, but that with fewer responsibilities and headaches, it's easier to be efficient.