Wednesday, February 27, 2002 -- The Bureau of Transportation Statistics today posted tables
at www.bts.gov providing an in-depth look at flight delays in 2001. Click on the banner for Airline On-time Performance 2001.
A ranking of the nation's major airports shows that 30 of the nation's
32 major airports had better on-time performance for arriving flights in
2001 than in 2000. Chicago Midway Airport had the lowest percentage of late
arriving flights and New York Kennedy Airport had the highest percentage of
late arriving flights during 2001.
A comparison of flight delays for 2000 and 2001 shows that the average flight
in 2001 was 5.5 minutes behind schedule, about half the 10.4 minutes behind
schedule for the average flight in 2000.
A comparison of annual flight delay numbers from 1995 to 2001 shows that
the number of late arrivals and late departures declined from 2000 to 2001
despite an increase in flights.
A ranking of all months since 1987 shows that December 2000 was the worst
month for flight delays and September 1994 was the best.