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Summary

On December 27, we issued the ninth in a series of our periodic updates to our Aviation Industry Performance Report. The report graphically identifies trends in aviation demand and capacity, aviation system performance, airline finances and service to small communities. This edition of the report focused on the summer of 2007, a time period when aviation delays as well as cancellations reached new highs and airline service captured the attention of the public, Congress, the Secretary of Transportation and the President of the United States. We found that airline on–time performance deteriorated broadly during the summer of 2007. Of the 55 large airports tracked by FAA, the number of delayed flights increased at 51 of the airports and the length of delays increased at 52 airports. Flight arrival delays, during the summer of 2007, increased by 15 percent from summer 2006 levels. In contrast, the number of scheduled flights increased at only 32 of the airports. Additionally, summer 2007 flight cancellations rose 28 percent from last year.