FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 1, 2001
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 42-01
DOT
Issues Monthly Air Travel Consumer Report
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 March 2001 and the first three months of this year.
On-time performance and baggage mishandling data for American Eagle Airlines is included for the first time in this report. The carrier now falls into the category of airlines required to report this data, which is those that have at least one percent of total domestic scheduled-service revenues. In addition, Aloha Airlines reports on-time performance voluntarily.
Flight Delays
According to the information filed with BTS, the 12 carriers reporting on-time data posted a 75.2 percent on-time record in March, better than February’s rate of 73.5 percent but not as good as March 2000’s 77.0. For the first three months of the year, the carriers had an on-time record of 75.2 percent, identical to the percentage recorded during January-March 2000.
Aloha had the best on-time arrival rate in March at 82.0 percent, followed by Trans World Airlines at 81.7 and Northwest Airlines at 81.2. Alaska Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 62.1, with American Eagle ranked eleventh at 66.0 and America West Airlines tenth at 69.7.
The report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In March, the four most frequently delayed flights were all operated by American Eagle. Flight 5036 from Boston to New York JFK was late 93.33 percent of the time, while three American Eagle flights were late 92.31 percent of the time: flight 4514 from Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Williamsburg, Va., to New York LaGuardia; flight 4505 from LaGuardia to Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Williamsburg; and flight 4740 from Boston to Bangor, Maine. The fifth most-delayed flight was Delta Air Lines flight 2519 from Hartford, Conn./Springfield, Mass., to Tampa, Fla., which was late 91.67 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.
This report is 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 typically cover delays caused by weather and volume, for example, but do not cover delays at the gate such as those caused by aircraft mechanical problems or crew unavailability. 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 March, the carriers canceled 3.4 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, slightly above the 3.3 percent canceled in February but well above the 2.1 percent canceled in March 2000. American Eagle had the highest percentage of canceled flights with 6.8 percent, followed by American Airlines with 4.6 percent and United Airlines with 4.1 percent. Southwest Airlines had the lowest rate of canceled flights at 0.8 percent, with Aloha at 1.7 and Trans World at 1.9.
Mishandled Baggage
The 11 largest U.S. carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.90 reports per 1,000 passengers in March, better than both February’s rate of 4.91 and March 2000’s 5.09. For the first three months of 2001, the carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 5.18, not as good as the 5.16 mark for the first quarter of 2000.
Complaints About Airlines Service
Consumers registered 1,757 complaints about airline service with DOT in March, a 40.8 percent increase from the 1,248 complaints filed in February but 8.7 percent below the 1,924 filed in March 2000. For the first three months of this year, consumers filed 5,226 complaints, 12.2 percent fewer than the 5,950 filed during the first quarter of 2000.
In addition, this report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in March against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. Consumers filed a total of 50 disability-related complaints in March, a decrease of 3.8 percent from the 52 complaints filed in February and 35.9 percent fewer than the 78 registered in March 2000. For the first three months of this year, consumers filed 148 disability-related complaints, down 36.2 percent from the 232 filed during the first quarter of 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.
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