United Airlines today announced the company was first in on-time performance for domestic scheduled flights among America’s five largest global carriers for 2009 as measured by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and published in the Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

Among this group of carriers, United climbed to first place for calendar year 2009, surpassing Delta (including its Northwest subsidiary), American, Continental and US Airways, with 81 percent of United flights arriving at their destinations within 14 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. United’s year-over-year improvement on this measure was nearly 10 percentage points. Preliminary statistics indicate the company’s leading performance continued through January 2010.

“This performance improvement demonstrates United’s commitment to getting our customers to where they need to be safely and on time,” said John Tague, president of United Airlines. “This is the direct result of the work we did in 2009 through good weather and bad, at each airport, and across every department and work group.”

In late 2008, United launched a back-to-basics effort – Focus on 5 – designed to shape the company’s activities around safety, reliability, customer service and financial performance.

In 2009, each time the airline ranked first in on-time performance among the nation’s five largest global carriers in a given month, frontline employees received a pretax payout of $100. Eligible employees received $65 if the company ranked in second place. For the year, frontline employees earned a collective total of $32 million, with a payout of $825 per employee.

Tague said United’s performance improvement is significant, especially when considering the frequency with which three of the airline’s largest hubs – Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport and San Francisco International Airport – are impacted by weather disruptions. Additionally, Washington Dulles International Airport was impacted by a blizzard that hit the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states at the start of the busy 2009 Christmas season. Still, United finished December in the No.1 position for on-time performance for domestic scheduled flights among the nation’s five largest global carriers, according to monthly data from the same report.

United last achieved top performance among America’s five largest global carriers in 2005. The five largest global carriers are defined by revenue, available seat miles or passengers flown.