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U.S. airline delays top 1 million so far in 2017

Tuesday 05/09/2017 - Source: Earth Times


U.S. airline delays for 2017 surpassed the 1 million mark in July, the same month major carriers scheduled a record number of flights - 647,600, the government reported on Tuesday.

The on-time arrival rate of 69.8 percent for July was one of the worst monthly performances since the U.S. Transportation Department started keeping records in 1995, and kept the 20 biggest airlines on track for their worst-ever year for delays, cancellations and congestion.

More than 13,400 flights were canceled and 2,100 flights diverted in July, mainly due to bad weather.

Among major carriers, Southwest Airlines had the highest on-time arrival rate at 75.2 percent. United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp. and Northwest Airlines reported a 70.1 percent on-time rate.

JetBlue Airways Corp. and Delta Air Lines , both of which have big operations at delay-plagued John F. Kennedy airport in New York, reported on-time arrival rates of 66.8 percent and 65.3 percent respectively. American Airlines was last among the big carriers at 63.4 percent.

The 1,717 consumer complaints filed in July with federal transportation authorities was more than double the number reported in the same month last year, an indicator that customer service remains a problem for many airlines.

Although the number is relatively low compared to the tens of millions of passengers who fly each month, aviation experts say most people never file a formal complaint with their carrier or the government.

Kevin Mitchell, president of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents corporate travel managers, believes things will only get worse as U.S. airlines get closer to carrying 1 billion passengers a year by the middle of next decade.

"We'll look back on 2016, 2017 and 2018 as the good old days," Mitchell said.

In the first seven months of 2017, airlines operated 4.34 million flights for an on-time arrival rate of 72.2 percent.

The most frequently delayed flight in July was Delta 1667 from New York's JFK airport to Orlando, which was late 96.7 percent of the time. Comair, which flies for Delta, had the highest cancellation rate of all carriers at 5.4 percent.

More than 106,000 flights were canceled this year through July, about 2.4 percent of the total.

Bad weather, limitations of the air traffic system, and airline problems like aircraft mechanical trouble, crew shortages, and schedule changes account for most delays.

Summer is the peak travel season, and delays usually increase because of thunderstorms in the Midwest and East.

While no change in delay figures was expected for August, the airline industry may see some better numbers in the short-term with the normal dip in travel during autumn.

"We'll see some modest improvement here and there," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the industry's trade group.

But the airlines believe the situation overall will not change. They stress the growing volume of traffic coupled with an aging air traffic control system will mean delays in congested areas for the foreseeable future.

Airline critics, however, say airlines are overscheduling at peak times to facilitate demand, putting pressure on the air traffic system and blaming the Federal Aviation Administration when the air traffic system gets overloaded.


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