"Nearly 8800 Flights Canceled" -- FlightStats
We knew it would be
bad... but according to numbers released Sunday by airline
performance watchdog FlightStats.com, on-time statistics during the
recent holiday travel season were truly awful.
"By our count, nearly 8800 flights have been canceled at major
US airports between Friday, December 19th and Sunday afternoon on
December 28 seriously disrupting holiday travel for over 1 million
passengers," FlightStats notes. "With capacity cuts and high
estimated load factors, travelers subject to cancellations have had
an awful time with 2-3 day waits for a seat on another flight
commonplace."
FlightStats adds on the six busiest travel days in that 10-day
holiday travel period, less than half of the scheduled flights
arrived on time. December 21 was the worst of those, with only 39%
of flights arriving with 15 minutes of their schedule.
"Flight schedules only approached some semblance of normalcy on
Christmas Day and today (Sunday 12/28)," the organization
added.
That will come as little surprise to the thousands of
travelers who spent their holidays stranded at commercial airports
nationwide -- from Honolulu to Newark, from Seattle to Chicago --
with almost all the resultant delays and cancellations caused by
wintry weather conditions.
As a case in point, FlightStats notes over the first three days
of the holiday travel season, Newark cancelled nearly 46% of its
flights, La Guardia 41% and JFK 21%... but as bad as those numbers
were, they were soon eclipsed by delays at airports in usually more
hospitable locales.
"The worst snow storm
in 30 years buried the Pacific Northwest starting on December
20th," FlightStats says. "Portland International's deicing
operation broke down causing 37% of its arriving flights to be
canceled. On Sunday Portland and Seattle's cancellations hit 76%
and 60% respectively. By Monday morning 12/22, the Pacific
Northwest's problems had gotten even worse and spread to LAX, SFO,
and Las Vegas where cancellations hit 45%, 52% and 78%
respectively."
Over the two days preceding Christmas, Chicago O'Hare hit the
bottom of the on-time performance list, with less than 10% of its
December 23 flights and less than 20% of its Christmas Eve flights
arriving on time. Newark had the worst on-time arrival percentage
on Wednesday, with an abysmal 13.4% of arriving flights reaching
the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled times.
"By Christmas Day, while Portland and Seattle continued to
struggle, Salt Lake City's operations began to break down," the
group says. "SLC is normally at the top of the on-time performance
list. But for the 2 days after Christmas only 34% of its flights
were arriving on time."
The day after Christmas was again a rough one for Chicago.
Midway Airport reported nearly half of its flights either canceled
or diverted; O'Hare was "only slightly better." Atlanta Hartsfield
had a 23% on-time arrival day on Friday, with close to half of all
flights arriving 45 minutes or more late.
Travelers returning home through some of the major hubs December
2007 experienced highly disrupted flight schedules at DFW, O'Hare,
and Atlanta. More than half of all flights at those airports were
either very late or canceled, according to FlightStats.
"Things appear to be returning to normal today (Sunday 12/28)
offering some hope for many still stuck in a system poorly equipped
to deal with the kind of disruptions we've seen this year," the
company concluded.