First-Ever Measure Of Strandings, Cancellations Based On Airline Reports

Saying the agency is committed to providing airline passengers with better information about flights that experience the worst tarmac delays, on Wednesday the US Department of Transportation released new, comprehensive data that, for the first time, include extended runway times for flights that were later cancelled and for flights diverted to alternative airports.

"This new information will help the Department keep better track of the most onerous tarmac delays while providing flyers a valuable new resource to help them choose carriers and flights," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.

Carriers were previously required to report their taxi-out and taxi-in times, Peters noted, but their reports did not include flights that were cancelled after having left the gate or were diverted to another airport before reaching their scheduled destinations.

The new reporting rule requires the airlines that file on-time data to provide the Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics with information on all of their tarmac delays, she said.

The report shows that in October, only 0.0001 percent of scheduled flights by the 19 reporting airlines, a total of 50 flights, were delayed on the tarmac for three hours or more. A total of six flights out of 554,325 by the reporting carriers had tarmac delays of four hours or more. Three of the six flights were identified due to the new reporting requirements: one was later cancelled, one was diverted, and a third was reported because of an additional clarification in the reporting of multiple gate departures.

The new data is the latest in a series of efforts by the Department to address concerns about lengthy tarmac delays, following a number of high-profile incidents during the winter of 2006-2007 in which passengers were stranded on grounded planes for hours.

As ANN reported, last month DOT proposed a number of consumer protection measures, including a requirement that airlines adopt contingency plans for lengthy tarmac delays and incorporate them in their contracts of carriage.

Nevertheless, passenger rights advocates said the DOT's measures fall short in a number of areas, in particular due to the lack of set guidelines over what constitutes a delay in the first place.

FMI: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov