The nation’s largest airlines had a rate of on-time flights this past May that was lower than the same month last year and the rate posted in April 2010, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report.
According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 18 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 79.9 percent in May, down from the 80.5 percent on-time rate in May 2009 and April 2010’s 85.3 percent.
Beginning this month, the report includes new data for consumers that are being used by the DOT to monitor compliance with the new consumer protection rules that took effect in April. It lists chronically late flights – those that are more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time – for two or more months – for each carrier reporting on-time performance.
In addition, the report lists all flights by the reporting carriers with tarmac delays of more than three hours, and for each carrier shows how many flights had tarmac delays of more than two hours. Previously, the report showed flights with four-hour tarmac times and the carrier summary for three-hour tarmac times.
The monthly report also includes data on lengthy tarmac delays, flight cancellations and the causes of flight delays by the reporting carriers, as well as information on airline bumping, reports of mishandled baggage filed with the carriers, and consumer service, disability and discrimination complaints received by DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division. This report also includes reports of incidents involving pets traveling by air, as required to be filed by U.S. carriers.
The consumer report includes BTS data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the reporting carriers.
In May, the carriers canceled 1.2 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, a higher rate than the 0.9 percent cancellation rate posted in May 2009 and the 0.7 percent rate posted in April 2010. In May, the carriers canceled 5.4 percent of their regularly scheduled flights at least 5 percent of the time, the first time this number is available in the Air Travel Consumer Report.