DOT Issues Final Rule To Require Airlines To Report Causes of Delays and Cancellations

Contact BTS 29-02 David Smallen 202-366-5568

Monday, November 25, 2002 -- The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued a final rule requiring the nation's largest airlines to file a monthly report categorizing the causes of delays and cancellations.

DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, in a rule published in today's Federal Register, will require the major air carriers that file monthly on-time reports with BTS to collect and report the causes of airline delays and cancellations.

These airlines now report on the number and extent of delays but do not provide information on the causes of airline delays and cancellations. The new requirements, which become effective in 180 days, are designed to fill the data gaps for airline delays and cancellations and provide this information to the public and other interested parties. Airlines will report delay cause data for the first full month after the 180-day period has expired.

"Although airline on-time performance has improved since early 2001, we need to act now to avoid a repeat of the chronic flight delays of the past," U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said. "The information to be collected through this new rule will be a critical tool for the managers of the aviation system as they plan for increases in passenger traffic and airline flights."

The rule creates four broad categories for reporting the causes of cancellations:

• Air Carrier — due to circumstances that were within the control of the air carrer, such as lack of flight crew or maintenance.
• Extreme Weather.
• National Aviation System (NAS) — cancellations caused by a broad set of conditions such as non-extreme weather, airport operations, heavy traffic volume, or air traffic control.
• Security — cancellations resulting from malfunctioning screening or other security equipment or a breech of security that causes the evacuation of the airport or individual concourses, or the need to re-screen passengers.

The rule creates the same four broad categories for the causes of delays, along with an additional category. They are:

• Air carrier
• Extreme weather
• NAS
• Security
• Late-arriving aircraft — a late incoming aircraft from the previous flight

The largest U.S. air carriers-those that have at least 1 percent of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues — currently report delay and cancellation data for nonstop scheduled-service flights between points within the United States (including territories) to BTS.

The airlines that currently report on-time data are Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, American Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways. These monthly reports are summarized in DOT's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report on its website, http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/report.htm, and additional information can be found on the BTS website, www.bts.gov.

Carriers will continue to be required to report on operations to and from the 32 U.S. airports that account for at least 1 percent of the nation's total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements. However, all reporting airlines have voluntarily provided data for their entire domestic systems.

A flight is counted as "on-time" if it arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time shown in the carriers' computerized reservations systems. Cancelled and diverted operations are counted as late.

DOT formed an Air Carrier On-Time Reporting Advisory Committee in August 2000 to consider changes to the current on-time reporting system so that the public would have clear information about the nature and sources of airline delays and cancellations. This task force recommended the creation of a reporting framework for collecting information about the causes of airline delays and cancellations.

In 2001, BTS conducted a pilot program with four airlines to test the monthly reporting of causation. BTS based the final rule on the recommendations of the task force, the results of its pilot project, its outreach efforts to the aviation community and comments received since the proposed rule was published in December 2001.

Small air carriers, and medium and large regional air carriers are not required under the rule to submit on-time flight performance reports based on the small number of enplanements they handle and the potential burdens and costs.

To view a copy of the rule, go to the Docket Management System website, http://dms.dot.gov/, and follow the instructions for viewing the documents in Docket No. OST 2000-8164.