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DOT Issues Air Travel Consumer Report For December and Year 2000
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DOT 20-01
Bill Mosley
202-366-5571
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Thursday, February 1, 2001 -- The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued its monthly Air
Travel Consumer Report, which contains information from DOT’s Bureau of
Transportation Statistics (BTS) about airline on-time arrivals, in addition to
information about mishandled baggage and consumer disability and service
complaints for December 2000 and cumulative data for last year.
Flight Delays
According to the information filed with BTS, the 11 carriers reporting
on-time data posted a 62.8 percent on-time record in December, not as good as
either November’s rate of 72.8 percent or December 1999's 78.0 percent mark.
Aloha Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in December at 91.9 percent,
followed by Continental Airlines at 74.0 and US Airways at 67.1. Delta Air Lines
had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 56.1, with Alaska Airlines
ranked tenth at 57.0 and Northwest Airlines ninth at 58.2. For the year 2000,
the reporting carriers had an overall on-time record of 72.6 percent, not as
good as 1999's 76.1 percent mark. The 72.6 percent rate for 2000 also is the
worst rate for any year since 1995, when comparable data began to be collected.
The report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at
least 80 percent of the time. In December, the two most frequently delayed
flights, both late 100 percent of the time, were Northwest flight 247 from
Detroit to New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Aloha flight 474 from Kahului,
Maui, Hawaii, to Oakland, Calif. The next most frequently late flight was
American Airlines flight 357 from LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare, late 95.83
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 cause, only the occurrence, of flight delays.
Flight Cancellations
The consumer report also includes BTS data on the number of domestic flights
canceled by the 11 reporting carriers. In December, the carriers canceled 5.9
percent of their scheduled domestic flights, up from the 2.3 cancellation
percentage rate of November. Delta had the highest percentage of canceled
flights at 10.1, followed by American at 9.4 and United Airlines at 7.0. Aloha
had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 1.8 percent, followed by Southwest
Airlines at 1.9 and Continental at 2.6.
Mishandled Baggage
The 10 largest U.S. carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of
8.07 reports per 1,000 passengers in December, not as good as either November’s
rate of 4.96 or December 1999's 5.63. For calendar year 2000, the carriers’
rate of mishandled baggage was 5.29 reports per 1,000 passengers, not as good as
the rate of 5.08 for 1999.
Complaints About Airlines Service
Consumers registered 1,285 complaints about airline service with DOT and its
Aviation Consumer Protection Division in December, a decrease of just under 8
percent from the 1,392 complaints filed in November and nearly 13 percent fewer
than the 1,470 filed in December 1999. For the year 2000, consumers filed a
total of 23,381 complaints, a 14 percent increase from the 20,438 filed in 1999.
In addition, this report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with
DOT in December against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers
with disabilities. Consumers filed a total of 37 disability-related complaints
in December, a 43 percent decrease from the 65 complaints filed in November and
21 percent fewer than the 47 complaints filed in December 1999. For the year
2000, consumers filed 676 disability-related complaints, an increase of nearly
15 percent from the 589 reported in 1999.
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 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.
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