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When it comes to delayed flights, summer weather can be more of a factor than winter storms, or so it appears according to the latest government airline figures.

Listen as air travel expert Rick Seaney grades the airlines:

5 Surprising Things about Weather and Flights

Best and Worst Airline On-Time Rates

According the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the overall on-time percentage for U.S. airlines this July was an even 76 percent which is down compared to recent months:

• May 2012: 83.4% flights on-time
• June 2012: 80.7% flights on-time
• July 2012: 76.0% flights on-time

The airline with the lowest percentage was Chicago-based United with a little more than 64 percent of its flights on-time – but as the BTS points out, 16 especially long long-delayed flights “took place on July 13 and involved flights bound for or departing from Chicago O’Hare Airport, where severe storms affected the area that day.”

What Airlines are Doing Right and Wrong in 2012

The airline with the best on-time flight percentage was, as usual, Hawaiian Airlines with an on-time performance of 89.6 percent.

Lost Baggage Stats Improve

The numbers for what the airlines called mishandled baggage (and passengers refer as lost bags) also improved from the time period of the year before, with just 3.52 missing bag reports per 1,000 passengers in July 2012 compared with 3.72 in July of 2011. The airlines with the best statistic were 1) Virgin America; 2) AirTran; 3) JetBlue. The carrier with the worst record was ExpressJet followed by American Eagle and SkyWest.

Passenger Puts Primate in Pants

Pet Stats Improve

No pets died while being transported by the airlines in this reporting period and only two were reportedly injured.