Flight Delays, Mishandled Bags Down in February, According to DOT Report

Contact DOT 34-02 Bill Mosley 202-366-5571

Tuesday, April 2, 2002 -- The nation's largest airlines recorded fewer delayed and canceled flights in February while their passengers filed fewer reports of mishandled baggage, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report.

In addition to the data from the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) regarding airline on-time arrivals and the mishandled baggage information, the report includes information about consumer disability and service complaints for February.

Flight Delays

According to the information filed with BTS, the 10 carriers reporting on-time performance posted an 84.7 percent on-time record in February, better than both January's rate of 81.0 and February 2001's 73.5 percent mark. America West Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in February at 88.5 percent, followed by Southwest Airlines at 87.3 and Continental Airlines at 87.0. Alaska Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights, ranking tenth at 77.9 percent, with Delta Air Lines ranked ninth at 81.2 and Northwest Airlines eighth at 81.6. The reduced volume of air traffic following the Sept. 11 attacks may have contributed to the reduction in flight delays after that date.

The report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In December, there were four flights on the list: Delta flight 440 from Atlanta to Chicago O'Hare, late 85.71 percent; Delta flight 321 from Cincinnati to O'Hare, late 85.71 percent; Alaska flight 177 from Seattle to Anchorage, AK, late 84.21 percent; and Delta flight 879 from Memphis, TN, to Cincinnati, 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 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 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 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 1.1 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, a lower rate than both January's 1.7 percent and February 2001's 3.3 percent. Alaska had the highest percentage of canceled flights in February at 2.3, followed by American Eagle Airlines at 2.2 and Delta at 1.5. Continental had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 0.2 percent, followed by America West at 0.3 and United Airlines at 0.6.

Mishandled Baggage

The 10 largest U.S. carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 3.85 reports per 1,000 passengers in February, better than both January's rate of 4.69 and February 2001's 4.88.

Complaints About Airlines Service

The department received 965 complaints about airline service in February, a 9.1 percent decrease from the 1,062 complaints filed in January and 22.9 percent fewer than the 1,251 filed in February 2001.

In addition, this report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in February against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. The department received a total of 51 disability-related complaints in February, more than double the 25 complaints received in January but slightly fewer than the 52 complaints filed in February 2001.

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 "pdf" and Microsoft Word format.