Airlines post worst on-time performance in over 5 years
More U.S. flights arrived late in June than the month before, continuing a string of poor performances by the nation’s airlines.
The government says that in the first six months of the year, the rate of late flights was the highest since 2008 and cancellations were the highest since 2000.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday that among airlines reporting figures, 71.8 percent of domestic flights arrived on time in June, down from 76.9 percent the month before and 71.9 percent in June 2013. A flight counts as late if it arrives more than 14 minutes behind schedule.
Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which aren’t as exposed to bad weather in the eastern and central parts of the country, had the best on-time ratings. Delta Air Lines led among the biggest carriers.
Regional airlines Envoy and ExpressJet and big carriers Southwest and American were at the bottom of the rankings. All were late more than 30 percent of the time. American and Envoy are both owned by American Airlines Group Inc., whose chief operating officer, Robert Isom, said that the company’s network suffered more than rivals from bad weather.
About 2 percent of all flights in June were canceled, with Envoy, ExpressJet and SkyWest faring the worst. Delta, Hawaiian, Frontier, Virgin America and Alaska all had minuscule cancellation rates of 0.2 percent or lower.
For the January-to-June period, 3 percent of all flights were canceled, the third-worst performance in the last 20 years, according to the government figures.
The news on delays and cancellations comes on the heels of reports of record profits at many airlines in the latest quarter of operations.
Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, a trade group for the large carriers, blamed weather as the biggest factor all year, with 17,370 weather-related cancellations in the first half of 2014, compared with 11,480 in the same period last year.
“With the exception of April, every single month had worse weather-related cancellations than the year earlier … there were times it was simply not safe to fly,” Medina said.
For the first six months of 2014, 74.2 percent of flights by the reporting airlines were on time. That is the fifth-lowest mark for the period in the last 20 years and the lowest since 2008 and 2007.
Consumers filed 1,095 complaints with the government against U.S. airlines, an increase of 16 percent over June 2013. Hawaiian, AirTran, Southwest and Alaska had the lowest rate of complaints, while Frontier, United and US Airways had the highest.
Ranking for airlines
Here are the government’s rankings of the leading airlines and their on-time performance in June. Some airlines, including Spirit and Allegiant, are not included because they operate fewer flights. The federal government counts a flight as on-time if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.
1. Hawaiian Airlines, 95.3 percent
2. Alaska Airlines, 86.0 percent
3. Virgin America, 81.6 percent
4. Delta Air Lines, 80.7 percent
5. AirTran Airways, 80.6 percent
6. US Airways, 78.0 percent
7. JetBlue Airways, 77.2 percent
8. SkyWest, 73.9 percent
9. Frontier Airlines, 70.9 percent
10. United Airlines, 70.1 percent
11. American Airlines, 67.6 percent
12. Southwest Airlines, 66.8 percent
13. ExpressJet, 65.1 percent
14. Envoy, 62.2 percent
Total for all reporting airlines: 71.8 percent
Note: Envoy was formerly American Eagle
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
This story was originally published August 7, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Airlines post worst on-time performance in over 5 years."