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.

FMI: www.dot.gov