DOT Issues Monthly Air Travel Consumer Report

Contact DOT 78-01 Bill Mosley 202-366-5571

Wednesday, August 1, 2001 -- The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, with the department’s official data from its Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) about airline on-time arrivals in June 2001, in addition to information about mishandled baggage and consumer disability and service complaints for June and for the first six months of 2001.

Flight Delays

According to the information filed with BTS, the 12 carriers reporting on-time data posted a 75.2 percent on-time record in June, not as good as May’s rate of 81.5 but better than June 2000’s 66.3 percent.

Southwest Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in June at 81.7 percent, followed by Aloha Airlines at 79.0 and Trans World Airlines at 78.7. American Eagle Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 67.6, with Alaska Airlines ranked eleventh at 69.3 and Delta Air Lines tenth at 71.9.

The report includes a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In June, the most-delayed flight was American Eagle flight 5036 from Boston to New York’s JFK Airport, late 90 percent of the time. Following were seven flights all late 86.67 percent of the time: Alaska flight 391 from San Francisco to Seattle; American Eagle 5129 from JFK to Boston; Delta 729 from Atlanta to West Palm Beach, Fla.; Delta 1734 from Atlanta to Tallahassee, Fla.; American Eagle 5167 from JFK to Providence, R.I.; American Eagle 4758 from Boston to Bangor, Maine; and American Eagle 5143 from Boston to JFK.

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 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 system but are not designed to measure airline passenger delays. The FAA data may be obtained at www.faa.gov/newsroom.

Flight Cancellations

The consumer report also includes data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the 12 reporting carriers. In June, the carriers canceled 3.0 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, more than the 1.8 percent cancellation rate for May but fewer than the 4.0 percent cancellation rate of June 2000. American Eagle had the highest percentage of canceled flights with 5.7 percent, followed by United Airlines with 4.0 percent and Delta with 3.5 percent. Southwest had the lowest rate of canceled flights at 1.0 percent, with Trans World at 1.8 and America West Airlines at 1.9.

Mishandled Baggage

The 11 largest U.S. carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.53 reports per 1,000 passengers in June, not as good as May’s rate of 3.79 but better than June 2000’s 5.65. For the first six months of this year, the carriers compiled a mishandled baggage rate of 4.67, an improvement over the 5.08 rate of January-June 2000.

Complaints About Airlines Service

Consumers registered 1,721 complaints about airline service with DOT in June, a 46.8 percent increase over the 1,158 complaints filed in May but 28.1 percent below the 2,393 filed in June 2000. For the first six months of this year, consumers filed 9,781 complaints, 19.6 percent below the 12,171 filed during the first half of last year.

In addition, this report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in June against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. Consumers filed a total of 46 disability-related complaints in June, a decrease of 4.2 percent from the 48 complaints filed in May and 9.8 percent below the 51 registered in June 2000. For the first six months of the year, consumers filed 291 disability-related complaints, 22.8 percent fewer than the 377 filed during the first half of last year.

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.

The Air Travel Consumer Report can be found on DOT’s World Wide Web site at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer. It is available in “pdf” and Microsoft Word format.