DOT is now considering further refinements to consumer protections now in place.
The biggest airlines in the U.S. had an on-time arrival record last December of 84.4%, the highest on-time percentage for any December during the 17 years the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has collected comparable flight delay data. According to DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report just released, the carriers also had a 0.8% rate of cancelled flights, the lowest December cancellation rate for the last 17 years. Airlines also reported no tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights or more than four hours on international flights in December.
It is a clear example of the effectiveness and the need for government regulation of industry since airline passengers were not treated fairly or getting reliable transportation until DOT put in place regulations with stiff fines to stop all too common abuses.
The larger U.S. airlines have been required to report long tarmac delays on their domestic flights since October 2008. Under a new rule that took effect in August of 2011, all U.S. and foreign airlines operating at least one aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats must report lengthy tarmac delays at U.S. airports. Also beginning last August, carriers operating international flights may not allow tarmac delays at U.S. airports to last longer than four hours. There is a separate three-hour limit on tarmac delays involving domestic flights, which went into effect in April 2010.
The full report is available at http://airconsumer.dot.gov/reports/index.htm. Detailed information on flight delays is available at http://www.bts.gov.
See also:
- Tougher DOT Airline Regulations Take Effect This Week
- FAA Finally Alters Pilot Fatigue Rules after Colgan Air Deaths
- American Airlines Files for Bankruptcy – Pensions Threatened?
- American Fined $900,000 for Tarmac Delays at O’Hare Airport
- Biofuels Now in Commercial Use at United and Alaska Airlines
- DOT Fines Orbitz for Violating Price Advertising Rules
- Auto Industry Reputation Shows Big Gains as Airlines Crash
- House and Senate Finally Agree Not to Close FAA but Fail to Address Taxes for Aviation and Bankrupt Highway Trust Fund
- EPA Tightens Airplane Emissions Rules as U.S. Carriers Sue EU
- DOT adds Protections for Air Travelers Abused by Airlines
- Atlanta Airport TSA Employee Handcuffs, Rapes Woman
Fair point: In December, airlines said that 4.69% of their flights were delayed by aviation system delays, compared to 4.90% in November; 5.19% by late-arriving aircraft, compared to 4.72% in November; 4.46% by factors within the airline’s control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared to 3.97% in November; 0.33% by extreme weather, compared to 0.26% in November; and 0.03% for security reasons, equal to 0.03% in November.
Weather is clearly a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays due to the re-routing of flights by DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration in consultation with the carriers involved. Weather is also a factor in delays attributed to late-arriving aircraft, although airlines do not report specific causes in that category.
Methinks mild weather might have had an effect, too.