XNA saw fewer delayed flights than national average

About 78% of domestic flights departed Northwest Arkansas National Airport on time in December 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That's down 4.4% from 82.4% the month prior, per recently released data from the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

Yes, but: XNA fared better than the national average, which saw just 69.1% of December's flights depart on time.

• That figure generally sits at 75-80% in a typical month, albeit with predictable dips in the busy — and often meteorologically challenging — summer and winter travel seasons.

Driving the news: The real story last December was, of course, Southwest Airlines' epic meltdown.

• Just 57.3% of Southwest's December flights departed on time nationally, compared to 77.2% for Delta Air Lines, 72.5% for American Airlines and 70.7% for United Airlines.
• Southwest's struggles dragged down the average for all carriers that report to BTS.

Yes, but: Indications suggest Southwest has recovered nicely since December, though BTS' data reports lag by about three months.

• The airline has promised to update key systems that exacerbated the meltdown and to better communicate with passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled.

What they're saying: "We spend a lot of money on technology and recently put in a new, state-of-the-art maintenance system, a new reservation system and a new human capital workday system," Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told Axios' Eleanor Hawkins.

The bottom line: December was just as bad as it seemed, the data show.