The official Transportation Department statistics are in and it’s official: 2006 was a pretty bad year to be an air traveler. Delays are up again this year, and again, Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time record, followed by Frontier and Southwest. You can find the detailed statistics on delays at http://BTS.gov.

Mishandled bags are up by one million bags for the year, a jump of over 30%. Again, Hawaiian leads the pack with the fewest lost bags, with JetBlue right behind. The bottom rankings are all held by regional carriers like Atlantic Southeast, Comair, and American Eagle. And if you don’t like complaining, or at least flying on airlines that get a lot of complaints, avoid United, which led the airlines in complaints per passenger. Information and stats on complaints and mishandled bags is online at http://Airconsumer.ost.gov.