Anyone
looking for statistics to show the depth of U.S. air traveler
misery so far this year has a lot of choices.
Consider this: The
on-time arrival performance of U.S. domestic flights over the first
six months of a year has never been this bad, at least since the
Transportation Department began compiling comparable figures in
1995, said DOT spokesman Bill Mosley. The DOT defines "on time" as
arriving within 15 minutes of schedule.
Consider this, too: DOT
data show that on-time performance in June fell to 68.1%. That
ranks among the worst months since 1995, but not even as the worst
this year, which was 67.3% in February.
And there's
more.
" The
DOT's Monthly Air Travel Consumer Report listed eight specific
flights that never arrived on time in June, with an average late
arrival time ranging from 78 to 153 minutes. All told, the DOT
listed more than 440 flights that arrived late at least 80% of the
time.
(To see which flights,
go to http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr07.htm to
download the most recent report.)
" Nearly 6% of flights arrived late at
least 70% of the time in June, including 23.4% of the flights
operated by Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast
Airlines.
" U.S. airlines reported a
mishandled-baggage rate of 7.34 per 1,000 bags for the first half
of 2007, compared with 5.86 in 2006. The rate topped 10 for
regional carriers Atlantic Southeast, Mesa, SkyWest, Comair and
American Eagle (worst at 14.71).
" Travelers with canceled flights or
missed connections may be feeling even more misery than
usual.
Many airlines reported
their highest load factors ever in July, which means many more
flights were completely full with no room to take
rebookings.