we would have ranked as the nation's #1 on-time carrier for the entire year," said Dunkerley. The DOT issued its Air Travel Consumer Report today for December 2003 comparing the performance of Hawaiian and 17 other major and regional airlines that file monthly statistics with the federal agency. On-time service, according to DOT standards, is any flight arriving within 15 minutes of its scheduled time.Hawaiian averages approximately 30 transpacific flights and 100 interisland flights daily. The company's interisland service is marked by back-to-back flights and short, 25-minute transition times on the ground between flights that emphasize the operational efficiency needed for Hawaiian to maintain such a high level of on-time service.?The two consecutive months of #1 rankings reported by DOT to end 2003 followed an industry analysis by the Honolulu market research firm of Q-Mark Research & Polling showing that Hawaiian had the nation's best on-time performance from January through October 2003, with 92.1 percent of flights arriving on time. The analysis covered approximately 40,000 flights and 4.6 million passengers that Hawaiian serviced for the first 10 months of the year, and compared data collected from the airline with the published data of the DOT.Hawaiian's successful on-time service was enhanced in January 2003 when a task team of front-line employees and management conducted an exhaustive evaluation of operations and procedures "above and below wing." Numerous recommendations were implemented ranging in scope from minute procedural changes to increased staffing, which collectively produced consistently high flight schedule reliability and enhanced customer service.