The closure of a primary runway at Minneapolis, coupled with a large number of Northwest-requested cancellations, impacted Pinnacle Airlines Inc. performance in September when the Air Travel Consumer Report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation reported regional airlines were part of the passenger service problems.
Cancellations represented 2.4 percent of Pinnacle's Minneapolis flights, said the airline, adding that without the requested cancellations, the completion factor would be 98.6 percent, which is more indicative of past performance. Even so, Pinnacle (82.4 percent) ranked just behind Express Jet’s 85.8 percent for on-time flights. The two were followed by SkyWest and Mesa at 82.9 percent each, Comair at 80.2 percent, American Eagle at 79.8 percent and Atlantic Southeast Airlines at 63.4 percent, somewhat disappointing given the changes at that airline since Delta took over ground handling at Atlanta. Pinnacle and ASA also cancelled 2.4 percent of their system-wide flights, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report. ASA and Pinnacle were followed by American Eagle at 1.9 percent, Mesa at 1.7 percent, SkyWest at 1.1 percent, Comair at 0.9 percent and Express Jet at 0.7 percent. Comair and ASA had the top four most frequently delayed flights including Comair’s Philadelphia-New York, ASA’s Atlanta-Myrtle Beach, Lafayette-Atlanta and Atlanta-Lafayette. The two Delta Connections also received the most passenger complaints among the reporting regionals ranking at numbers 17 and 18 out of 20, respectively. SkyWest had the least complaints ranking number five of all the carrier’s reporting. It was followed by American Eagle, Pinnacle, Express Jet, and Mesa which ranked numbers six through nine.
Regionals remained ranked at the bottom of the list for the worst baggage handling performance amongst the reporting airlines. Express Jet and Pinnacle had the best of bad records ranking 10 and 15, respectively, for September. They were followed by Comair, Mesa, American Eagle, SkyWest, and ASA , which had the worst ranking at 10.4 bags per 1,000 passengers.
This past September, the nation's largest airlines recorded a higher rate of on-time flights and lower rates of cancellations and mishandled baggage than in both the previous month and September 2006, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report.
According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 20 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 81.7 percent in September, better than both September 2006's 76.2 percent and August 2007's 71.7 percent.
The report also shows that these carriers canceled 1.1 percent of their scheduled flights in September, down from both September 2006's cancellation rate of 1.7 percent and August 2007's 1.9 percent. In addition, the carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 5.45 reports per 1,000 passengers in September, lower than both September 2006's 8.26 rate and August 2007's 7.55 rate.
The carriers filing on-time performance data reported that 5.89 percent of their September flights were delayed by aviation system delays, compared to 8.06 percent in August; 5.32 percent by late-arriving aircraft, compared to 9.27 percent in August; 5.25 percent by factors within the airline's control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared to 7.67 percent in August; 0.56 percent by extreme weather, compared to 1.02 percent in August; and 0.05 percent for security reasons, compared to 0.08 percent in August.
Data collected by BTS also shows the percentage of late flights delayed by weather, including those reported in either the category of extreme weather or included in National Aviation System delays. In September, 34.16 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, down 15.21 percent from September 2006, when 40.29 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, and down 11.04 percent from August when 38.40 percent of late flights were delayed by weather.
The report also includes airline reports of involuntary denied boarding, or bumping, for the third quarter of 2007. Of the 20 U.S. carriers who report on-time performance and mishandled baggage data, 18 are also required to report their bumping records to DOT. These 18 carriers posted a bumping rate of 0.99 per 10,000 passengers for the quarter, up from the 0.70 rate for the third quarter of 2006. For the first nine months of this year, the carriers had a bumping rate of 1.21 per 10,000 passengers, up from the 1.04 rate for January-September 2006.