NEW YORK >> In a month in which U.S. airlines turned in their worst on-time performance since December, Hawaiian Airlines once again bucked the trend and was punctual an impressive 93.3 percent of the time.

Nationwide, U.S. airlines had a combined on-time arrival rate of 76.1 percent in June compared with 80.5 percent in May, the U.S. Department of Transportation said yesterday. But the carriers had fewer delayed flights this June than in the same month a year ago. The on-time rate in December was 65.3 percent.

The most frequent reasons for flight delays included airport congestion, equipment problems and weather. A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.

June was a bad month because of severe weather across the nation. The National Weather Service recorded more than 6,400 incidents involving hail and high winds, almost twice the number reported in May.

Hawaiian, which has led all U.S. carriers in on-time performance for each of the past five years, also ranked second overall nationally in the handling of consumers' luggage with 1.92 mishandled baggage reports filed for every 1,000 passengers. Hawaiian was third for fewest flight cancellations at 0.4 percent, with 26 cancellations out of 6,133 total flights, and had the top ranking in the quarterly category for passengers denied boarding, with only a single involuntary denied boarding out of more than 2 million customers during the quarter.

“;Hawaiian's employees both in the front line and in support roles deliver a level of service to our customers that is the envy of the industry,”; Hawaiian Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Dunkerley said.

The airline with the worst on-time performance was Comair — a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc. — at 59.8 percent.

Among legacy carriers, Houston-based Continental Airlines Inc. reported the fewest delays (80.5 percent on time), and American Airlines posted the worst on-time performance (69.2 percent).

Legacy carriers are those airlines that had a large presence in a number of regions before the industry was deregulated in 1978.