Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. airlines’ on-time arrival rate in September was the highest in six years, as the number of scheduled flights fell to the fewest for the month since 2002.

The 86.2 percent on-time rate compared with 86.4 percent in October 2003, the Transportation Department said in a report today in Washington. The September result was the fourth-best tally recorded for any month in the 15 years the department has kept records. September 2002 was the best ever.

Fewer people are flying and carriers are cutting back the number of seats they are offering during the U.S. recession, leading to less congestion. The department tracked almost 511,000 airline flights in September, down from about 541,000 in the same month the previous year. In September 2002 there were 430,000.

Hawaiian Holdings Inc.’s Hawaiian Airlines had the best September on-time rate, at 94.1 percent, followed by Alaska Air Group Inc.’s Alaska Airlines at 90 percent and Southwest Airlines Co. and Republic Airways Holdings Inc.’s Frontier unit at 89.1 percent.

SkyWest Inc.’s Atlantic Southeast unit had the lowest on- time rate at 72.2, followed by Delta Air Lines Inc.’s Comair unit at 80.5 and Delta at 82.2.

The New York area’s three major airports were the most congested in September, with no more than 71 percent of flights on time at Newark, New Jersey’s Liberty and New York’s LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.

From January through September, airlines posted a 79.6 percent on-time rate, the best since 82.3 percent for the same period in 2003.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Hughes in Washington jhughes5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 12:27 EST