Airlines improve on-time performance, but complaints continue to rise
WASHINGTON – More airline flights arrived on time in August than either the same month a year earlier or July, the Transportation Department said Thursday.
The 80.3% on-time rate, which meant planes arrived within 15 minutes of their schedule, improved on the 77.7% rate for the month a year earlier and the 78.1% rate in July, according to the department’s Air Travel Consumer Report.
The most punctual airlines were Delta, Alaska and Hawaiian. The least punctual were Spirit, JetBlue and Frontier.
Hawaiian CEO Mark Dunkerley said several factors led to his airline losing their top ranking during the last year and reporting the worst on-time arrival rate in a decade at 81.5%.
More flights and more passengers led to a shortage of gates at Honolulu International Airport, with delays at customs and immigration during peak times at mid-morning, he said. Also, abrupt changes to routing led to longer flights around Honolulu, and long-awaited airport construction that the airline supports also caused delays, he said.
"Our employees have been working with airport staff to manage these challenges and will continue to do so," Dunkerley said, although there will be "short-term pain" associated with the construction.
Delta had one of two flights delayed more than three hours, which the department is investigating for potential fines. Delta flight 897 from Orlando to Atlanta on Aug. 20 was delayed 232 minutes. And PSA Airlines flight 4947, a regional for American Airlines from Charlotte to Washington Dulles, was delayed the same day for 185 minutes.
Despite improvements in timeliness, complaints against airlines continue to rise. The department received 2,205 complaints in August, up from 1,605 for the same month a year earlier and from 2,163 in July, according to the report.
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Luggage was a mixed bag. Reports of mishandled bags came in at a rate of 3.33 per 1,000 passengers in August, down from 3.69 rate a year earlier, but up from 3.22 in July.
Airlines canceled 1% of their flights in August, which was better than 1.2% for the month a year earlier, but slightly worse than 0.9% in July, according to the report.
Among the reasons for delays, bad weather was less of a culprit. About 28% of delays were blamed on weather, down from 35.7% for the same month a year earlier and nearly 29.4% in July, according to the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Other reasons also declined. The portion of delays blamed on late-arriving aircraft fell to 6.8% from 8.16% in July. Planes delayed by the aviation system fell to 5.21% from 5.58%. And factors within the airline’s control, such as maintenance problems, fell to 5.69% from 6.27%.