This from the Knowledge is Power Department: Aircrafts are creatures of, well, the air – and when that air is a roiling, tumultuous mess flights get canceled. Some flyers gripe about that, but most seem to accept Mother Nature’s mechanics.
This past spring has played havoc with flight schedules in certain parts of the country. FlightStats reports the Top 40 North American airlines canceled 16,267 flights in June. That’s a lot, but not as many as they axed in May when 18,690 were scrubbed. Seventeen thousand flights were canceled in May. The carrier that took the biggest hit was American Eagle, whose flights – and passengers –had to endure 1,941 cancellations.
A significant swath of Eagle’s flights operates out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. FlightStats says DFW was next to last among the Top 40 airports in June when it came to on-time performance. Just 56.85 percent of its flights departed on time.
That figure has little to do with DFW per se, one of the most magnificent airports on the planet. It has much to do with the meteorological matrix that envelopes the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex this time of year – not to mention the flights that flow into and out of the planet’s third-busiest airport.
Other airports that racked up poor on-time departure numbers this past June according to the folks at FlightStats: Miami International (51.09 percent), Chicago O’Hare (57.27 percent), New York Kennedy (62.12 percent), and New York LaGuardia (66.67 percent).
If you happened to fly to, through, or from the following North American airports in June you were probably in decent shape. Salt Lake City International, a major Delta Air Lines hub, managed to get 96.96 percent of its flights away from the gate on time. Seattle/Tacoma, Alaska Airlines’ prime hub, fared well too. Nearly 86 percent of SEA’s flights were on time. The next two high-flying cities also are in the Pacific Northwest. Portland International racked up an 85.56 percent on-time rate, and Vancouver International an 83.59 percent figure. PDX is a major Alaska Airlines player, and both discount airline WestJet and Air Canada do a lot of business in Vancouver. Rounding out the top five North American on-time performers was Minneapolis/St. Paul. Not only is it a major Delta hub, but discount airline Sun Country calls MSP home. Virtually its entire route structure emanates from there. Minneapolis/St. Paul’s on-time departure rate this past June was 82.04 percent.
You have to look to the Far East to find June’s overall best on-time departure airport. It was Tokyo Haneda – 95.26 percent of its flights departed on time.
To put things in even more perspective, here’s a quick look at North American airline on-time performance for June from FlightStats:
- Alaska Airlines 90.64 percent.
- Delta Air Lines 77.88 percent
- American Airlines 77.39 percent
- United Airlines 75.71 percent
- Continental Airlines 75.52 percent
- US Airways 73.67 percent
- JetBlue 73.39 percent
- Southwest Airlines 71.14 percent
- Air Canada 63.87 percent
You might want to note that FlightStats says discount airline Southwest disputes the accuracy of this data.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Frank Kovalchek)
