Wednesday, July 4, 2007
U.S. Airline Delays Worsened in May for 5th
Month
By Susanna Ray
Bloomberg -- U.S. airline delays worsened in May for a fifth straight month, and the passenger-complaint rate surged 45 percent, the Transportation Department said.
Only 77.9 percent of May flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, down from 78.3 percent in the same month in 2006, the agency said today on its Web site. The complaint rate jumped to 1.13 per 100,000 passengers, compared with 0.78 last year.
Delays in May kept 2007's on-time arrival rate at the worst since 1995, a reflection of growing aviation gridlock as carriers add flights while the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration works to upgrade air-traffic control equipment. Bad weather at some of the biggest hubs also slowed operations.
``It's off to a bad start, and travelers need to be prepared,'' said George Hamlin, managing director of Airline Capital Associates in Fairfax, Virginia. ``It's likely not to be a fun summer to travel, and that could have a dampening effect going forward.''
The number of flights arriving on time has fallen each month in 2007 compared with 2006. Through May, the rate was 73.6 percent, the lowest annual figure since the U.S. began tracking the data in the current format 12 years ago, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, a DOT agency.
May's on-time rate was higher than April's 75.7 percent, and marked the U.S. industry's best performance since May 2006.
Delays in New York
The three New York-area airports again had the lowest on- time percentages among their U.S. peers, the BTS said. Sixty- three percent of LaGuardia International arrivals were on time in May, compared with 64 percent at Newark Liberty and 65 percent at John F. Kennedy International.
Flights to Salt Lake City were the most punctual, with 88 percent arriving on time.
Among airlines, US Airways Group Inc. finished the worst in May for on-time arrivals, at 67.9 percent. Its Flight 1569 from Boston to Philadelphia was the most-delayed in the U.S. in May, running late 96 percent of the time.
``We know we need to do better,'' spokesman Morgan Durrant said. The carrier, No. 7 in the U.S. by passenger traffic, began a customer-service push in March that includes hiring more workers and upgrading self-service kiosks, he said.
Hawaiian Airlines fared best in the rankings, with 92.8 percent of its flights arriving on time.
``Extreme weather'' delayed about 0.8 percent of all flights, while security delays affected less than 0.1 percent of U.S. flights in May, the Transportation Department said. The biggest share of delays was attributed to the ``national aviation system,'' including non-extreme weather conditions, airport operations, heavy traffic volume and air traffic control.
`Finger-Pointing'
``Each airline needs to examine their operations'' and find ways to improve punctuality, said Hamlin, the industry consultant. ``There's been a lot of circular finger-pointing.''
The FAA is awaiting increased funding from Congress to speed the overhaul of aging equipment that agency officials say isn't adequate for the traffic loads in U.S. airspace. On May 23, the FAA said it was expanding use of procedures this summer that allow carriers to fly around thunderstorms.
While some of the largest U.S. airlines prune domestic capacity, low-cost carriers are adding flying. Regional-jet traffic also grew 20 percent a year from 2000 through 2006, according to FAA figures.
Storms
Storms also have hurt airline operations this year by snarling key airports, sending delays rippling across the U.S.
For example, annual rainfall almost doubled through June compared with 2006 in Dallas-Fort Worth, the biggest hub for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines. New York-based JetBlue Airways Corp. canceled more than 1,100 flights in a week after a February ice storm in the U.S. Northeast.
Travel in June began with delays as well, when thunderstorms and an FAA computer failure slowed air traffic at 11 major airports on June 8.
UAL Corp.'s United Airlines had its own computer malfunction on June 20, forcing it to stop takeoffs worldwide for more than two hours. Northwest Airlines Corp. cited weather, congested airspace and a pilot shortage for thousands of delays and cancellations during the last week of the month.
Continental Airlines Inc. said yesterday that just 67.9 percent of its planes arrived on time in June.
The following table shows on-time arrival rates for U.S. airlines in May as well their year-earlier percentages and rankings, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Airline and rank May 2007 May 2006 (Rank) 1. Hawaiian Airlines 92.8 94.99 (1) 2. Aloha Airlines 88.4 88.67 (2) 3. AirTran Airways 85.47 78.84 (12) 4. Delta Air Lines 84.01 82.15 (5) 5. Pinnacle Airlines 83.6 No Report 6. Southwest Airlines 83.17 81.04 (9) 7. SkyWest Airlines 80.93 81.93 (6) 8. Mesa Airlines 80.14 77.37 (13) 9. Atlantic Southeast 78.76 74.61 (15) 10. JetBlue Airways 78.2 81.66 (7) 11. Frontier Airlines 77.07 83.95 (3) 12. ExpressJet Airlines 76.77 73.1 (18) 13. Comair 76.54 80.83 (10) 14. Alaska Airlines 76.24 81.64 (8) 15. United Airlines 75.66 74.33 (16) 16. Continental Airlines 75.14 74.1 (17) 17. Northwest Airlines 74.61 82.81 (4) 18. American Eagle 73.38 68.37 (19) 19. American Airlines 70.98 76.67 (14) 20. US Airways 67.94 80.6 (11) ATA Airlines No Report 66.13 (20)
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