U.S. airlines saw on-time percentages fall during the month of October, primarily due to weather and congestion in the nation’s air traffic system. The 19 U.S. carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 77.3 percent – significantly lower than September 2009′s 86.2 percent and October 2008′s 86.0 percent. Overall, October 2009 was not a particularly good month for airlines – which airlines were the winners and losers?
Below is a chart ranking all of the carriers (click to enlarge):
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Highest and Lowest On-Time Arrival Rates
Of the 19 carriers, Hawaiian Airlines posted the highest on-time arrival rate (93.4 percent), followed by Alaska Airlines (85.8 percent), and JetBlue Airways (82.9 percent). As for the carriers with the lowest on-time arrival rates, Northwest Airlines posted the lowest (69.3 percent), followed by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (71.6 percent), and ExpressJet Airlines (72.6 percent)
Most Frequently Delayed Flights
Southwest operated the top three most frequently delayed flights; flight 3545 Phoenix to Sacramento (95.45 percent), flight 1366 Chicago-Midway to Minneapolis-St. Paul (92.31 percent), and flight 2544 Phoenix to Los Angeles (92.31 percent). Comair flight 6352, Houston to New York JFK, grabbed the fourth spot (90.32 percent). And finally Pinnacle flight 4285 from Sioux Falls, SD to Minneapolis-St. Paul took the fifth spot (90 percent).
Cancellations
Pinnacle Airlines had the highest rate of canceled flights (2.3 percent), followed by American Eagle (2.3 percent), and Mesa Airlines (2.1 percent). As for the lowest rates of canceled flights, Hawaiian Airlines posted 0.0 percent, and only canceled three flights during the month of October. Continental Airlines canceled 0.2 percent, the second lowest rate, and JetBlue only canceled 0.3 percent of flights,
Tarmac Delays
Good news! There were no flights with tarmac delays of four hours or more during the month of October 2009.
Mishandled Baggage
U.S. airlines posted a mishandled baggage rate of 3.48 reports per 1,000 reports in October, and improvement compared to October 2008, but higher than September 2009′s rate of 3.01.
Complaints
The Department of Transportation received 896 complains from consumers related to airline service, up 42.4 percent from the 629 complaints received in October 2008, and up 48.3 percent from the 604 received in September 2009.
Breakdown of Reasons for Delay
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics
The numbers are interesting. Overall, airline on-time performance tumbled significantly during October. With a system-wide decrease of flights (compared to a year earlier), airlines are expected to improve, not fall. I’ll be interested to see how airlines performed in November.
