"Poll finds fliers encounter fewer airport delays"

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Poll finds fliers encounter fewer airport delays
Pacific Business News


Most airports are still asking fliers to arrive two hours before
departure times, but most respondents to a Travelocity poll say airports
have got their security act together and can handle it if you get there
just one hour early. 
  
Thousands took part in the survey, which aimed to collective passenger
experiences from the Memorial Day holiday as a possible bellwether of
Fourth of July travel. Fully 88 percent recommended arriving 60 minutes
or less before departure, a practice most airports do not endorse. 

Honolulu did not make either the top five or bottom five of airport
waits. Sacramento ranked best in the nation based on the highest
percentage of respondents who waited 15 minutes or less; no other city
feeding traffic to Hawaii made the top five. But the bottom five, with
the highest percentage reporting waits of 30 minutes, included Miami,
Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and Washington Dulles. 

Denver is United's second busiest hub and the origin point for many of
its flights to Hawaii. Hawaiian Airlines flies between Hawaii and
Phoenix. Delta has resumed Hawaii nonstops from Atlanta. And a lot of
Hawaii-bound United passengers start their vacation journeys at Dulles. 

Travelocity did the same kind of breakdown for waits at check-in
counters. Sacramento also made the top five there, second to Milwaukee,
and so did Portland and Seattle. Hawaiian flies to Portland while SeaTac
is served from Hawaii by Hawaiian, Northwest and ATA. Of the five
airports with the worst check-in waits, the only airport with flights
leaving for Hawaii was Atlanta. 

Flight delays were also checked. The best five airports were San Diego
(served by Hawaiian Airlines), Milwaukee, SeaTac, Ft. Lauderdale and
Tampa/St. Petersburg, while the worse were Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare,
Newark, Dallas/Ft. Worth and New York LaGuardia. O'Hare is United's
headquarters hub and a common transfer point for Hawaii vacationers
starting farther east. Both United and American fly nonstop to Hawaii
from there. Continental Airlines flies nonstop to Hawaii from Newark,
while American originates Hawaii flights from DFW.


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