| ABOUT RITA | CONTACT US | PRESS ROOM | CAREERS | SITE MAP |
|
 |
|
BTS Directs Pinnacle to File Monthly Flight Delay Reports in 2007
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006 - The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has directed Pinnacle Airlines, which operates as Northwest Airlink, to report on-time performance information in 2007 because the airlines' revenue has exceeded the required threshold for the monthly reports. BTS also removed ATA Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines from the list of airlines required to report. Hawaiian will continue to report voluntarily as it did prior to being directed to report in 2006. BTS also added St. Louis Lambert and Portland, OR, International to the list of airports for which airlines are required to report flight delays. Greater Pittsburgh Airport was removed from the list. BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), issued the directive because Pinnacle took in $837 million in scheduled domestic passenger revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, more than 1 percent of the scheduled domestic passenger revenue for all carriers. The carrier now must report monthly data on flight delays, cancellations, causes of delays and causes of cancellations to BTS. Pinnacle also will be required to file with the Department the number of reports of mishandled baggage it receives each month from passengers. BTS required 20 carriers to report on-time and mishandled baggage data in 2006 with Aloha Airlines reporting voluntarily. BTS has allowed ATA and Hawaiian to stop making monthly reports because the airlines fell below the 1 percent revenue threshold of $744 million. With the changes, 19 carriers will be required to report beginning with January 2007 data. America West Airlines and US Airways, which are in the process of merging, are both required to report on-time data but the airlines will file combined reports as they did in 2006. With the combined report, the Department's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report will list 18 airlines required to report in addition to Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines reporting voluntarily. ATA and Hawaiian two carriers reported the following revenue for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2006: ATA: $464 million St. Louis Lambert and Portland International are added back to the list of airports for which flight delays must be reported because they once again accounted for at least 1 percent of the nation's total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements, which is 6.51 million passengers. Both airports had been on the reporting list previously but fell below the threshold for reporting in calendar year 2006. With the addition of the two airports and the removal of Pittsburgh, the number of reportable airports changes from 31 to 32. However, all reporting airlines have voluntarily provided data for all airports they serve in their domestic systems, and the Department makes this system-wide information available to the public. Total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements for the 12 months ended June 30, 2006 were 651 million. Enplanement numbers for the three airports were: St. Louis Lambert: 6.90 million For the complete list of carriers and airports see http://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_information/accounting_and_reporting_directives/technical_directive.html. On-time performance and mishandled baggage data are published approximately 30 days after the end of the month in the Department's Air Travel Consumer Report, http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/. Detailed information on airline on-time performance is available on the BTS website, www.bts.gov. |
|
