The nation’s largest airlines posted an on-time arrival rate of 83.7% in January, improved from the 76.3% rate of January 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report just released. On-time performance during January 2012 was the highest January on-time percentage in the 18 years where comparable numbers are available.
Flights to or from Phoenix (PHX) operated by Southwest or United had the dubious distinction of posting the most delays of greater than 30 minutes in January more than 50% of the time.
Cancellations were down in January from a year ago, as airlines canceled 1.5% of their scheduled domestic flights, down from January 2011’s 3.9% cancellation rate, but up from December 2011’s 0.8%.
Airlines also reported no tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights or tarmac delays of more than four hours on international flights in January. Here, new government regulations and healthy fines appear to be having their intended effect.
In January, the carriers filing on-time performance data reported that 5.02% of their flights were delayed by aviation system delays, compared to 4.69% in December. Late arriving aircraft accounted for 4.93% of delays, compared to 5.19% in December; 4.06% by factors within the airline’s control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared to 4.46% in December; 0.55% by extreme weather, compared to 0.33% in December; and 0.02% for security reasons, compared to 0.03% in December.
Weather is a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays due to 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.
Data collected by BTS shows the percentage of late flights delayed by weather, including those reported in either the category of extreme weather or included in National Aviation System delays. In January, 35.46% of late flights were delayed by weather, up 7.26% from January 2011, when 33.06% of late flights were delayed by weather, and up 2.49% from December when 34.60% of late flights were delayed by weather.
