The nation’s major airlines collectively improved their on-time flight performance in July from both the prior month and a year earlier, the federal government reported in its latest monthly accounting.

The 19 airlines reporting on-time performance systemwide had a collective on-time arrival rate of 77.6 percent in July. That compared with 76.1 percent in June and 75.7 percent in July 2008.

But Comair and AirTran Airways, two of the busier carriers at Dayton International Airport, were among the industry’s worst offenders for July 2009 in having late flights, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported. The on-time arrival rate for Comair, owned by Delta Air Lines, was 63.6 percent and AirTran’s was 69.8 percent, putting them among the three worst in that category, the government reported.

Hawaiian Airlines had the industry’s highest on-time arrival rate of 93.6 percent in July, according to the government.

Two other carriers which serve Dayton, US Airways and United Airlines, had on-time arrival rates in July of 80.5 percent and 79.6 percent, respectively.

Comair also had the highest rate of canceled flights, 5.4 percent, across its system.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.