Good News... For A Change

The 17 U.S. commercial air carriers reporting on-time performance posted an 85.6 percent on-time arrival record in September, the third-best monthly performance since the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) began collecting comparable on-time reports in 1995, according to the department's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report released Thursday. September's performance was up from August's 79 percent rate.

The monthly report also includes data on flight delays and cancellations, reports of mishandled baggage filed with the carriers, airline reports of oversales ("bumping") for the third quarter of this year, airline service complaints, and consumer disability and discrimination complaints received by the Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

Flight Delays

SkyWest Airlines had the highest on-time rate in September at 92.3 percent, followed by JetBlue Airways in second place at 92.1 and Southwest Airlines third at 89.7. ExpressJet Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 77.8 percent, with Continental Airlines ranked 16th at 78.1 percent and Atlantic Southeast Airlines 15th at 81.6 percent.

The report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In September, the most frequently delayed flight was Continental flight 1434 from Norfolk, VA to Newark, NJ, late 90.48 percent of the time. ExpressJet flight 2845 from Des Moines, IA to Newark, NJ; Continental flight 691 from Greensboro, NC to Newark, NJ; and ExpressJet flight 2781 from Hartford, CT to Newark, NJ were tied as the second most-delayed flights, arriving late 88.46 percent of the time.

These official on-time data are distinct from the data compiled by the FAA, which records delays while aircraft are under control of the air traffic control system (i.e., from actual gate pushback time to actual gate arrival time). FAA data cover some of the delays caused by weather and volume, for example, but do not cover delays at the gate such as those caused by aircraft mechanical problems, crew unavailability or many weather conditions affecting flights before they depart. The FAA data are useful for managing the air traffic control system but are not designed to measure airline passenger delays.

Flight Cancellations

The consumer report also includes BTS data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the reporting carriers. In September, the carriers canceled 1.4 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, down slightly from August's 1.6 percent cancellation rate. American Eagle Airlines had the highest percentage of canceled flights in September at 2.6 percent, followed by ExpressJet Airlines and Atlantic Coast Airlines at 2.3 percent. JetBlue Airways had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 0.1 percent, followed by America West Airlines at 0.6 percent and United Airlines at 0.7 percent.

Mishandled Baggage

The 17 U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 3.17 reports per 1,000 passengers in September, lower than August's 4.61 rate. For the first nine months of this year, the carriers had a mishandled baggage rate of 4.20 reports per 1,000 passengers.

Bumping

The report also includes airline reports of involuntary denied boarding, or bumping, for the third quarter of 2003. Of the 17 U.S. carriers that report on-time performance and mishandled baggage data, 14 are also required to report their bumping records to DOT. These 14 carriers posted a bumping rate of 0.70 per 10,000 passengers for the quarter, down from the 1.08 rate for the second quarter of 2003. For the first nine months of this year, the carriers had a bumping rate of 0.89 per 10,000 passengers.

Complaints About Airline Service

DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection Division received 460 complaints from consumers about airline service in September, down 10.7 percent from the 515 complaints filed in September 2002 and 11.0 percent fewer than the total of 517 received in August 2003. For the first nine months of this year, DOT received 4,734 complaints from consumers about airline service.

Complaints About Treatment of Disabled Passengers

The report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in September against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. The department received a total of 41 disability-related complaints in September, 41.4 percent more than the total of 29 filed in September 2002 and 5.2 percent more than the 39 recorded in August 2003.

Complaints About Discrimination

In September, the department received nine complaints alleging discrimination by airlines due to factors other than disability - such as race, religion, national origin or sex - down 18.2 percent from the total of 11 recorded in September 2002 but one more than the eight received in August 2003.

FMI: www.bts.gov, http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov