DOT 10-03
Monday, February 3, 2003
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
Flight Delays,
Consumer Complaints, Mishandled Bags, Bumping Drop in 2002
The nation’s largest air carriers improved their on-time
performance in 2002 while consumers filed substantially fewer complaints about
airline service than in the previous year, according to the monthly Air Travel
Consumer Report issued today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
The carriers also recorded fewer reports of mishandled bags last year and
bumped fewer passengers involuntarily, the DOT report shows.
In addition to data for the calendar year, the report also
contains on-time performance, mishandled baggage and consumer complaint data for
December, and bumping data for the fourth quarter of 2002.
Flight Delays
According to information filed with the department’s Bureau
of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 10 largest U.S. carriers currently
required to report on-time performance posted an on-time arrival rate of 82.1
percent in 2002, up from 2001’s 77.4 percent.
For the month of December, the carriers recorded an on-time arrival rate
of 78.3 percent, not as good as either December 2001’s 80.2 percent or
November 2002’s 85.2. United
Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in December at 82.2 percent, followed
by American Airlines at 80.9 and Northwest Airlines at 79.9. American Eagle Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time
flights in November at 73.1 percent, with Alaska Airlines ranked ninth at 73.8
percent and America West Airlines eighth at 75.7 percent.
The monthly report contains a list of regularly scheduled
flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In December, only one flight made the list:
Continental Airlines flight 522 from Houston to San Francisco, late 82.35
percent of the time.
The report contains a note reminding consumers that flight
delays can be caused by a variety of factors.
The data on which this report is based do not identify the causes, only
the occurrence, of flight delays.
These official on-time data are distinct from the data
compiled by DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (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 delays caused by weather and aircraft 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 in December by the reporting carriers.
In December, the carriers canceled 1.7 percent of their scheduled
domestic flights, more than both December 2001’s 1.0 percent and November
2002’s 0.9 percent. American
Eagle had the highest rate of canceled flights in November at 4.2 percent,
followed by Alaska at 2.2 and US Airways, also at 2.2 but a fraction of a
percentage fewer than Alaska. United
had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 0.8 percent, followed by
Continental in ninth place with 0.9 percent, and American West eighth at 1.0.
Mishandled
Baggage
During 2002, the 10 U.S. airlines required to file flight
delay and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 3.84
reports per 1,000 passengers, well below 2001’s rate of 4.58.
In December, the carriers compiled a mishandled baggage rate of 4.91,
slightly better than December 2001’s 4.96 but not as good as November 2002’s
rate of 3.16.
Bumping
The 10 largest U.S. passenger carriers posted a rate of
involuntary denied boarding, or bumping, of 0.72 per 10,000 passengers in 2002,
down from 2002’s rate of 0.82. For
the fourth quarter of last year, the carriers posted a bumping rate of 0.96 per
10,000 passengers, compared to the rate of 1.01 for the fourth quarter of 2001.
Complaints
About Airline Service
During 2002, the department received 9,471 complaints from
consumers about airline service, a drop of 42.6 percent below the total of
16,508 recorded in 2001. In
December, the Department received 517 complaints, a 6.7 percent drop from the
554 complaints filed in December 2001 and a fraction of a percent fewer than the
519 received in November 2002.
Complaints
About Treatment of Passengers With Disabilities
The report
also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT during 2002 and December
against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with
disabilities. The department
received a total of 477 disability-related complaints last year, a 5.7 percent
decrease from the total of 508 recorded in 2001.
For December, the department received 24 disability-related complaints,
an increase of 26.3 percent over the 19 recorded in December 2001 but a 22.6
percent decrease from the total of 31 filed in November 2002.
Complaints
About Discrimination
Consumers registered 195 complaints during 2002 alleging
discrimination by airlines due to factors other than disability – such as
race, religion, national origin or sex – a 2.1 percent increase over the 191
filed in 2001. During December, the
department received eight discrimination complaints, a 71.4 percent drop from
the 28 received in December 2001 but more than the total of five received in
November 2002.
Consumers
may file their complaints in writing with the Aviation Consumer Protection
Division, U.S. Department of Transportation, C-75, 400 7th St., S.W.,
Room 4107, Washington, D.C. 20590, by e-mail at airconsumer@ost.dot.gov, by
voice mail at (202) 366-2220 or by TTY at (202) 366-0511.
The
department reminded consumers who want on-time performance data for specific
flights to call their airline ticket offices or their travel agents.
This information is available on the computerized reservation systems
used by these agents. Detailed
flight delay information is also available on the BTS site on the World Wide Web
at http://www.bts.gov/ntda/oai/.
The
Air Travel Consumer Report can be found on DOT’s World Wide Web site at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/
and is available in “pdf” and Microsoft Word format.
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