Seven New Carriers Report On-Time Performance, Baggage Mishandling to DOT

Contact DOT 27-03 Bill Mosley 202-366-5571

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 -- The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report containing on-time and mishandled baggage data for February for 17 U.S. airlines, including seven carriers whose data appear in the report for the first time.

Six of the newly reporting carriers - Atlantic Southeast Airlines, AirTran Airways, ATA (formerly doing business as American Trans Air), Atlantic Coast Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines and SkyWest Airlines - recently became subject to the reporting requirements because each now has at least 1 percent of the total U.S. domestic scheduled-service passenger revenue. A seventh carrier - JetBlue Airways - is filing these data voluntarily.

The seven carriers join 10 other airlines required to report on-time performance and mishandled baggage data: Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, American Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

The report also contains data on the consumer disability, discrimination and service complaints received by the department's Aviation Consumer Protection Division during February. These complaint data are not limited to the carriers reporting on-time and mishandled baggage data, but include complaints filed with DOT by consumers regarding all airlines regardless of size.

Flight Delays

According to information filed with the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 17 reporting airlines recorded an on-time arrival rate of 76.6 percent for February. SkyWest had the best on-time arrival rate at 85.4 percent, followed by United at 84.3 and Southwest at 80.1 percent. Atlantic Coast had the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals in February at 56.9 percent, with American Eagle Airlines ranked 16th at 69.3 percent and American Trans Air 15th at 70.1 percent.

The monthly report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In February, the most frequently late flights were ExpressJet flight 2369 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth, late 91.67 percent of the time; ExpressJet flight 2796, also from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth, late 90.91 percent of the time; and two Atlantic Southeast New York JFK-Atlanta flights - 4269 and 4551 - both late 89.29 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 by the reporting carriers. In February, the carriers canceled 4.0 percent of their scheduled domestic flights. Atlantic Coast had the highest rate of canceled flights in February at 10.6 percent, followed by American Eagle at 7.6 percent and US Airways at 6.0 percent. SkyWest had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 1.6 percent, followed by United at 2.2 percent and Southwest at 2.3 percent.

Mishandled Baggage

In February, the 17 U.S. airlines reporting flight delay and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.96 reports per 1,000 passengers.

Complaints About Airline Service

In February, the department received 440 complaints from passengers about airline service, a 53.4 percent drop from the 964 complaints filed in February 2002 and 36.4 percent fewer than the 692 complaints registered in January 2003.

Complaints About Treatment of Passengers With Disabilities

In February, the department received 22 disability-related complaints, 56.9 percent fewer than the total of 51 recorded in February 2002 and 24.1 percent below the total of 29 filed in January 2003.

Complaints About Discrimination

In February, the department received six complaints alleging discrimination by airlines due to factors other than disability - such as race, religion, national origin or sex - an 80 percent drop from the total of 30 recorded in February 2002 and 57.1 percent fewer than the total of 14 registered in January 2003.

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.