DOT Issues Monthly Air Travel Consumer Report

Contact DOT 60-01 Bill Mosley 202-366-5571

Wednesday, June 6, 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 addition to information about mishandled baggage and consumer disability and service complaints for April 2001, and bumping rates for the first quarter of this year.

Flight Delays

According to the information filed with BTS, the 12 carriers reporting on-time data posted a 79.3 percent on-time record in April, better than both March’s rate of 75.2 and April 2000’s 75.4.

Aloha Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in April at 87.5 percent, followed by Continental Airlines at 85.7 and Trans World Airlines at 83.3. Alaska Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 71.0, with American Eagle Airlines ranked eleventh at 71.1 and United Airlines tenth at 71.5.

The report includes a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In April, five flights made the list: American Eagle flight 4527 from Detroit to New York LaGuardia, late 84.62 percent of the time; Delta Air Lines flight 323 from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., late 83.33 percent; American Eagle flight 4549 from LaGuardia to Columbus, Ohio, late 80.95 percent; American Eagle flight 4508 from LaGuardia to Detroit, late 80.00 percent; and Delta flight 1466 from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta, late 80.00 percent.

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 cause, only the occurrence, of flight delays.

This official on-time data are distinct from the flight delay 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). These 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 flight delay 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 April, the carriers canceled 2.2 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, fewer than both the 3.4 percent canceled in March and the 2.5 mark of April 2000. American Eagle had the highest percentage of canceled flights with 5.2 percent, followed by United with 3.8 percent and American Airlines with 2.8 percent. Continental had the lowest rate of canceled flights at 0.6 percent, with Southwest Airlines at 0.7 and Aloha at 0.9.

Mishandled Baggage

The 11 largest U.S. carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.30 reports per 1,000 passengers in April, better than both March’s rate of 4.90 and April 2000’s 4.50.

Bumping

The largest U.S. carriers posted a rate of denied boarding, or bumping, of 0.86 per 10,000 passengers during the first three months of this year, down from the rate of 1.01 for the fourth quarter of 2000 and 0.99 for the first quarter of last year.

Complaints About Airlines Service

Consumers registered 1,667 complaints about airline service with DOT in April, a 5.1 percent decrease from the 1,757 complaints filed in March and 20.6 percent below the 2,099 filed in April 2000.

In addition, this report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in April against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. Consumers filed a total of 49 disability-related complaints in April, a decrease of 2 percent from the 50 complaints filed in March but an 11.4 percent increase over the 44 registered in April 2000.

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 "html" and "pdf" format.