DOT 77-02
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Contact: Bill Adams
Tel: (202) 366-5580
DOT Issues U.S. Air
Travel Consumer Report for July
The Department of
Transportation today released its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, which includes
July data about flight delays and mishandled baggage, as well as complaints
about airline service, the treatment of passengers with disabilities and alleged
discrimination by airlines.
Flight
Delays
According
to information filed with the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics
(BTS), the 10
carriers reporting on-time performance posted a 79.8 percent on-time arrival
record in July, better than both June’s 78.6 percent and July 2001’s 78.1
percent. United Airlines had the
best on-time arrival rate in July at 83.2 percent, followed by U.S. Airways also
at 83.2, but a small fraction of a percent behind United.
Continental was third at 82.8. American
Eagle Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights for July at 76.2,
with Alaska Airlines ranked ninth at 77.1 and Northwest Airlines eighth at 77.9.
The report contains a
list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the
time. In July, the most-delayed
flight, late 96.77 percent of the time, was Delta flight 1992 from Atlanta to
New York (JFK). The next four
most-delayed flights were Southwest flight 1428 from Cleveland to Baltimore,
late 87.10 percent of the time; Southwest flight 1428 from Midway to Cleveland,
late 87.10 percent; Southwest flight 1834 from San Diego to Phoenix, late 86.21
percent; and Delta flight 2192 from Memphis to Atlanta, late 82.76 percent of
the time.
The report contains a
note reminding consumers that flight delays can be caused by a variety of
factors. The data on which this
report is based do not identify the causes, only the occurrence, of flight
delays.
These official on-time
data are distinct from the data compiled by DOT’s Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), which records delays while aircraft are under control of
the air traffic control system (i.e., from actual gate pushback time to actual
gate arrival time). FAA data cover
delays caused by weather and aircraft volume, for example, but do not cover
delays at the gate such as those caused by aircraft mechanical problems, crew
unavailability or many weather conditions affecting flights before they depart.
The FAA data are useful for managing the air traffic control system but
are not designed to measure airline passenger delays.
Flight Cancellations
The consumer report
also includes BTS data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the
reporting carriers. In July, the
carriers canceled 1.3 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, fewer than
June’s 1.7 percent and July 2001’s 2.1 percent.
American Eagle had the highest rate of canceled flights in July at 2.5
percent, followed by Alaska Airlines at 1.9 and Northwest also at 1.9.
Continental had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 0.8 percent,
followed by Delta at 0.9 and United at 1.0.
Mishandled Baggage
In
July, the 10 largest U.S. airlines posted a mishandled-baggage rate of 3.99
reports per 1,000 passengers, better than both June’s rate of 4.03 and July
2001’s 4.53.
Complaints About
Airline Service
The department received
1,034 complaints about airline service in July, a 15.9 percent increase over the
892 complaints received in June but 46.3 percent fewer than the 1,926 complaints
received in July 2001.
Complaints About
Treatment of Disabled Passengers
The
report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in July against
specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities.
The department received a total of 45 disability-related complaints in
July, a decrease of 10 percent from the 50 complaints filed in June but 7.1
percent more than July 2001’s total of 42.
Complaints About
Discrimination
Consumers registered 14
complaints in July alleging discrimination by airlines due to factors other than
disability – such as race, religion, national origin or sex – up from the 13
complaints filed in June and lower than the total of 16 filed in July 2001.
Consumers
may file their complaints in writing with the Aviation Consumer Protection
Division, U.S. Department of Transportation, C-75, 400 7th St., S.W.,
Room 4107, Washington, D.C. 20590, by e-mail at airconsumer@ost.dot.gov,
by voice mail at (202) 366-2220 or by TTY at (202) 366-0511.
The
department reminded consumers who want on-time performance data for specific
flights to call their airline ticket offices or their travel agents.
This information is available on the computerized reservation systems
used by these agents. Detailed
flight delay information is also available on the BTS site on the World Wide Web
at http://www.bts.gov.
The
Air Travel Consumer Report can be found on DOT’s World Wide Web site at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer.
It is available in “pdf” and Microsoft Word format.
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