What a difference a year makes. This time last year 60 flights were delayed on tarmacs across the country for more than three hours. In February 2011 none was caught for that long, according to the Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report.
Better news still: numbers from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics indicate just 16 total tarmac delays exceeding three hours over a period stretching from May 2010 through February 2011. Compare that figure to the same May 2009 through February 2010 window, when there were 664 reported three-hour plus delays.
Perhaps not coincidentally February 2011 was the tenth month since new federal rules went into effect on April 29, 2010. Those regs prohibit U.S. airlines (operating domestic flights) from letting their aircraft linger on tarmacs more than three hours without letting passengers get off. There are scant few exceptions to the rules – just safety, and when air traffic control advises the pilot that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.
That’s the big news from DOT’s latest Air Travel Consumer Report. Other material that matters:
– Next to a diminution in delays, the most telling figure is consumer complaints. February 2011’s tally dropped by 10.8 percent compared to the same month in 2010. This year DOT got 687 gripes in February. Last year in February it was 770.
– In February, large swaths of the nation were hit by horrid winter weather. Airlines cancelled 4.9 percent of their scheduled domestic flights. This compares to 5.4 percent in February 2010. The weather meant that the number of canceled flights with tarmac delays longer than two hours edged up slightly, from 289 between May 2009 and February 2010 to 331 between May 2010 and February 2011.
– In February there was but one chronically-delayed flight in the land. DOT defines “chronically delayed” as a flight that’s more than 30 minutes late, 50 percent of the time.
– In the second month of the year, DOT reports 6.73 percent of flights were delayed due to slowdowns in the aviation system itself, this compared to 6.12 percent in January. 5.44 percent of flights were delayed because of things within the airlines’ control, such as maintenance or crew problems. In January the number was 5.65 percent. Extreme weather accounted for 0.69 percent of delays in February, compared to 0.60 percent a month earlier. Security issues triggered miniscule delays: just 0.05 percent in February, and 0.07 percent in January.
– February saw fewer bags mishandled too – just 3.59 percent compared to January’s 4.20 percent.
– Fewer pets died or were injured traveling by air in February: two reports compared to three in February 2010.
While fewer planes, people and bags were delayed this February compared to last, not all of DOT’s statistics are as sanguine. Consider:
– In February there were 40 complaints alleging discrimination against passengers with disabilities, this compared to 30 for the same month a year earlier.
– The number of complaints contending discrimination because of race, religion or gender doubled for February 2011. DOT reports five such alleged instances in February 2010, and ten for the same month this year.
Had a really bad flight and believe you were mistreated? Register your displeasure with DOT. Go to http://airconsumer.dot.gov, call 202-366-2220 or use TTY at 202-366-0511.
Story by Jerry Chandler
