Fri, Mar 05, 2004
Were They Ever On Schedule?
Wow, here's a news
flash: Airlines aren't keeping to their flight schedules. On-time
performance by major U.S. airlines continues to slide with delays
creeping back at several big airports despite fewer passengers,
industry and government figures showed on Tuesday. Although the
number of airline passengers remains far below the record years of
1999 and 2000, flight operations and delays have been going up
steadily and putting new pressure on some of the nation's busiest
airports. At Chicago O'Hare, where delays are up 28 percent
in the past year, American Airlines and United Airlines scaled back
their schedules this week as part of a voluntary agreement with the
Transportation Department to reduce congestion there.
The FAA has been concerned about growing congestion around
Chicago -- the worst in the nation --, which is partly due to
operations at O'Hare and the growing use of Midway airport, which
is popular with low-cost carriers. United and its regional
affiliates cut 35 flights at O'Hare between early afternoon and
early evening beginning on Monday, while American and its partner,
American Eagle, trimmed their operations by 28 flights starting on
Tuesday. In both cases, some flights were canceled while others
were changed to non-peak times.
According to the first
performance data for the year, the 19 carriers reporting to the
government recorded an overall on-time rating of 75 percent in
January. This compares with 76 percent for 18 carriers in December
and 83 percent for 17 airlines in January 2003, the Transportation
Department said. Airlines canceled 3 percent of flights in January
compared with 2 percent in December. Weather continues to be an
important factor in delays but airlines are adding more flights as
demand picks up.
On-time performance lagged by 5 percent at Detroit and Los
Angeles in January compared to the same period last year, and 7
percent at Miami, 6 percent at Boston, 8 percent at Dallas-Fort
Worth and 11 percent at New York's LaGuardia. The most frequently
delayed flight in January was Alaska Airlines 211 from Los Angeles
to Seattle, which was behind schedule nearly 94 percent of the
time. Atlantic Coast Airlines, a regional carrier for Delta
Air Lines and United, had the lowest on-time arrival rate at 65
percent. Hawaiian Airlines had the highest on-time arrival rate at
87 percent followed by Southwest Airlines at 83 percent. Alaska had
the highest rate of canceled flights at just fewer than 8 percent,
while JetBlue Airways had the lowest at less than half of 1
percent.
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