Airline delays on the rise in the US

09 August 2007

This year, US airlines have recorded the worst on-time performance in 13 years. That's the good news. The bad news is, the delays are expected to worsen

One in four domestic flights in the US arrives late, US aviation on-time data shows. Aviation industry representatives say there is little hope the performance will improve soon. Anything and everything has been identified as responsible for the situation, from the effects of bad weather to a steady increase in the number of planes in already overcrowded skies, especially over metropolitan New York and major hub airports.

Airlines and private-plane owners are lobbying the US Congress to for higher allocations; to spend billions of dollars more on air traffic control upgrades. But no one wants to bear their share, and there's a great deal of squabbling over how these costs will be split. Not surprisingly, the issue is in gridlock. "We have been saying for some time that it's going to get worse before it gets better," says David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the airline trade association.

Soaring aviation sector
One obvious contributor to the increase in delays is that in the first half of 2007, major US airlines operated a record 3.7 million flights, 31 per cent more than in 2000. Industry representatives say that airport expansion and air traffic control technology improvements just haven't kept pace. Result — the worst airborne traffic jam in US history.

At Boston's Logan International Airport, for example, one in three flights landed late in 2007, making it worse than the national average. Logan ranks a poor 25th out of the 32 biggest US airports for arrivals. Departures aren't not much better — over 25 per cent of flights are leaving more than 15 minutes late. And this is despite Logan having six runways!

According to bureau standards, a long-haul flight is on schedule if it arrives or departs within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. Nationwide, both arrivals and departures are worse than they were in 2006. Some delays — especially those caused by thunderstorms or snowstorms — are unavoidable. And, a weather-induced delay at the airport of departure can dent the record of the airport of arrival.

Consumer complaints to the Transportation Department have also soared. June saw 43 per cent more complaints than a year earlier. With delays come baggage snafus. Reports of lost, damaged, stolen, or delayed luggage jumped to 7.9 bags for every 1,000 passengers in June, up 25 per cent from 6.3 bags a year earlier.