FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 3, 2001
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 29-01
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 February 2001.
Flight Delays
According to the information filed with BTS, the 11 carriers reporting on-time data posted a 73.5 percent on-time record in February, not as good as January’s rate of 76.6 percent but better than February 2000’s 74.8. Continental Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in February at 80.1 percent, followed by Aloha Airlines at 79.5 and US Airways at 78.6. Alaska Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 62.1, with America West Airlines ranked tenth at 68.0 and Trans World Airlines ninth at 69.2.
The report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In February, the four most frequently delayed flights were all late 85.71 percent of the time, three of which were operated by Alaska Airlines: flight 217 from Los Angeles to Seattle, flight 720 from Seattle to Phoenix, and flight 770 from Seattle to Tucson, Ariz. In addition, Delta Air Lines flight 2397 from Boston to West Palm Beach, Fla., was late 85.71 percent of the time in February.
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 11 reporting carriers. In February, the carriers canceled 3.3 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, identical to the 3.3 percent canceled in January and slightly less than the 3.4 percent canceled in February 2000. American Airlines had the highest percentage of canceled flights with 4.6 percent, followed by Alaska with 4.5 and United Airlines with 4.4. Southwest Airlines had the lowest rate of canceled flights at 1.4 percent, with Continental at 1.6 and America West at 2.8.
Mishandled Baggage
The 10 largest U.S. carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.91 reports per 1,000 passengers in February, better than January’s rate of 5.71 but not as good as February 2000’s 4.88.
Complaints About Airlines Service
Consumers registered 1,248 complaints about airline service with DOT in February, a 43.8 percent decrease from the 2,221 complaints filed in January and 37.3 percent below the 1,992 filed in February 2000.
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. Consumers filed a total of 52 disability-related complaints in February, an increase of 13 percent over the 46 complaints filed in January but 41.6 percent fewer than the 89 registered in February 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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