Washington ? Some things did go right for airline passengers last year: Planes were more likely to land on time and bags less likely to get lost.

As a result, passengers reported fewer complaints in 2009 even while cash-strapped airlines reduced flight schedules and charged for everything from bags and pillows to prime spots in boarding lines.

Airline performance has been improving over the past two years. In 2007, the year air travel surged to its busiest level since before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, airline performance suffered a near meltdown. Last year, however, there were 704 million U.S. airline passengers, compared with 770 million in 2007.

The findings, based on an analysis of government statistics, are in the latest annual report by private researchers.

“We kind of turned a little bit of a corner in ’08 and we’re glad to say they’re continuing that generally positive (trend) for the consumer,” said Dean Headley, a Wichita State University professor and co-author of the report. “Every airline that we looked at in ’08 and ’09 got better.”

One cloud in the otherwise friendly skies was a slight increase in denied boardings, mostly bumpings due to overbooking.

For every 10,000 passengers, an average of 1.19 passengers were denied boarding in 2009, compared with 1.1 passengers the previous year.

An overall ranking of the 18 airlines based on their combined performance in four categories — on-time arrivals, mishandled baggage, denied boardings, complaints — was to be released today.

Despite annoying baggage fees, or perhaps because of them, airlines did better with the luggage. People didn’t check as many bags last year, and fewer than 4 bags per every 1,000 travelers were lost or damaged. The rate for lost bags last year was second best in the last 20 years and about half what it was in 2007.