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Flight Delays, Lost Bags at Record Highs

Complaints to feds increased last year

February 6, 2008

According to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Air Travel Consumer Report, U.S. airlines experienced a lower rate of on-time flights and more reports of mishandled baggage last year than in 2006, and passengers filed more complaints with the government about airline service than they did the previous year.

"Our daughter left for a semester abroad in Florence Italy on 1/27/08 and checked two bags to cover the four month stay. One bag was lost by US Air," complained Mark of Berwyn, PA. "The US Air team has been less than helpful, polite, civil, caring or professional."

The 20 airlines reporting on-time performance with DOT recorded an on-time arrival rate of 73.4 percent in 2007, compared with their 75.4 percent mark in 2006.

In addition, reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers rose to a rate of 7.03 last year from a rate of 6.73 in 2006. Also, consumers filed 13,168 complaints about airline service with the Department, 58.2 percent more than the 8,325 filed in 2006.

"My direct flight from Denver to Birmingham AL was delayed 8 hours because UA did not have a plane available. The plane was grounded in Aspen CO because of bad weather (snow) which was forecast the day prior, therefore unable to fly to Denver for the flight to Birmingham," said Larry of Aurora, CO, who wrote to ConsumerAffairs.com about his experience.

"I feel it is unreasonable to have a direct flight between two large cities rely on a plane coming out of a small mountain town where the weather is often unsuitable for flying," he said. "UA waited all day before they canceled the flight out of Aspen."

The monthly report also includes data on the causes of flight delays, as well as information on flight cancellations and on consumer disability and discrimination complaints received by DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

And it has figures on airline reports of oversales (“bumping”) during the fourth quarter and January-December 2007, as well as reports required to be filed by U.S. carriers of incidents involving pets traveling by air.

December delays

The carriers reporting on-time performance posted a 64.3 percent on-time arrival record in December, compared with 2006’s 70.8 and November 2007’s 80.0 percent marks.

In December, the carriers reported that 10.41 percent of their flights were delayed by aviation system problems; 10.89 percent by late-arriving aircraft: 9.15 percent by factors within the airline’s control, such as maintenance or crew problems; 1.38 percent by extreme weather; and 0.08 percent for security reasons.

Weather is a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays due to the re-routing of flights by the Federal Aviation Administration in consultation with the carriers involved. Weather also is a factor in delays attributed to late-arriving aircraft, although airlines do not report specific causes in that category.

December cancellations

The consumer report also includes data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the reporting carriers. In December, the carriers canceled 3.5 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, compared with December 2006’s 3.0 percent rate and November 2007’s 1.0 percent mark.

The U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 9.01 reports per 1,000 passengers in December. The December 2006 rate was 8.93 and November 2007’s was 4.89.

The report also includes airline reports of involuntary denied boarding, or bumping, for 2007 and the fourth quarter of last year. In 2007, the U.S. carriers had a bumping rate of 1.12 per 10,000 passengers, up from the 1.00 rate for 2006. For the fourth quarter of 2007, the carriers recorded a bumping rate of 0.82 per 10,000 passengers, down from the 0.88 rate recorded during the fourth quarter of 2006.

December service complaints

In December, the department received 849 complaints about airline service from consumers, up 40 percent from the 607 complaints filed in December 2006 and up 5.1 percent from the total of 808 received in November 2007.

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