Pinnacle (PNCL) ranked in the top three airlines with Aloha and Hawaiian (HA) for on-time arrival in April, while Comair ranked in the top three, with USAirways (LCC) and JetBlue (JBLU) for the lowest on-time arrival rate in the latest statistics issued by the Department of Transportation. American Eagle and Mesa (MESA) were in the top three, with American (AMR), for highest rate of cancellations. The lowest rate of canceled flights went to Hawaiian, Frontier (FRNT) and Aloha. The most frequently delayed flights includes Comair flight 5463 from New York JFK to Buffalo, NY – late 96.67 percent of the time; SkyWest (SKYW) Airlines flight 2570 from Columbus, OH to Milwaukee – late 96.15 percent of the time, and Comair flight 5625 from New York JFK to Jacksonville, FL – late 93.75 percent of the time. Congress asked DOT to investigate chronically delayed flights as part of a larger investigation into airline scheduling. Related Story
Meanwhile, airlines are scurrying to implement new consumer policies. For instance, in efforts to address moves for a Congressionally mandated passenger bill of rights, United (UAUA) has imposed a three-hour limit for taxi-out delays and a 90-minute limit on taxi-in delays after which passengers will be compensated. Any North American flight breaking those limits will be tagged as “flights of note” for which passengers will receive a 20 percent coupon for any United round-trip economy class ticket, a $10 airport meal voucher and a written apology. United had 324 flights incur greater than three-hour taxi-out delays last year although fewer than 0.1 percent of flights experience long delays. However, its flight attendants immediately issued a statement they were appalled by its move saying it does nothing to "fix the poor planning, poor scheduling and poor staffing decisions that cause increased cancellations nor does it address abysmal employee morale, minimal ground personnel or inadequate gate access.. Instead, according to the union, it signals to employees that management has set travelers up for a long, hot summer of delays, missed business meetings and disrupted family vacations."
DOT reported on-time flights this past April were higher than in March but down from the rate posted in April 2006. In addition, the 20 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 75.7 percent in April, down from April 2006’s 78.4 but an improvement over March 2007’s 73.3 percent. In April, the carriers canceled 1.8 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, up from the 1.1 percent cancellation rate of April 2006 but down from March 2007’s 2.6 percent.
The carriers filing on-time performance data reported that 7.72 percent of their April flights were delayed by aviation system delays, compared to 7.62 percent in March 2007; 7.44 percent by late-arriving aircraft, compared to 8.09 percent in March; 6.37 percent by factors within the airline’s control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared to 7.32 percent in March; 0.70 percent by extreme weather, compared to 0.80 in March; and 0.06 percent for security reasons, the same percentage recorded in March. Weather is a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays owing to the re-routing of flights by the Federal Aviation Administration. Weather is also a factor in delays attributed to late-arriving aircraft, although airlines do not report specific causes in that category.
In April, 41.72 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, up 5.75 percent from April 2006, when 39.45 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, and up 10.28 percent from March when 37.83 percent of flights were delayed by weather.
The mishandled baggage rate of 6.32 reports per 1,000 passengers in April, was higher than April 2006’s 5.27 rate but below March 2007’s 7.71 mark. The department received 1,246 complaints from consumers about airline service, up 76.7 percent from the 705 complaints received in April 2006 but 4.9 percent fewer than the 1,310 filed in March 2007.
Still the Aviation Consumer Action Project (ACAP) and the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights (CAPBOR) have joined to charge both DOT and FAA with “fiddling while the system burns with delays (1 in 4 flights) and cancellations (1 in 20 flights) and strandings (8 major incidents in past 6 months).” Five consumer organizations – ACAP, CAPBOR, Consumer Federation of America, Public Citizen, and US PIRGs – have joined in calling on Secretary Mary Peters and FAA Administrator Marion Blakey to meet with them to address the problem. Last week the largest flight attendants union, the 55,000-member Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA-AFL) joined in support of strong airline passenger rights legislation.
ACAP and CAPBOR, who said there has been no response from the federal agencies, noted passenger complaints are now running over 70 percent higher in 2007 than 2006, according to DOT statistics. The top three complaints are flight delays and cancellations, mishandled baggage, customer service and ticketing problems. Most recent months show big increases in customer complaints to DOT (76 percent increase year over year April 2007 to April 2006, over 80 percent for March and 50 percent for February).
"DOT has scheduled meetings with the airline representatives that exclude consumer representatives however," noted ACAP’s Paul Hudson, a long time air traveler rights advocate and public member of the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee and the TSA Aviation Security Advisory Committee.
One in four flights are now delayed over 15 minutes, with extreme weather responsible for only five percent of delays, while according to DOT statistics, airline responsibility causes and air traffic congestion are the major delay reasons. However, as has been pointed out in DOT Inspector General reports, DOT statistics on delays exclude cancelled flights, most strandings and flight diversions, thereby greatly underreporting the problem.