Flight Delays Soar To All-Time High

30 Percent Of Flights Delayed Last Month; Statistics Released After Bush Vows To Fix Airline Woes

(CBS/AP)  The airline industry's dismal on-time performance continued in August with nearly 30 percent of flights delayed, according to government data that comes less than a week after %t to help fix the problem.

The nation's 20 largest carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 71.1 percent in August, down from 75.8 percent a year ago, the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Wednesday.

Through August, more than 25 percent of flights have arrived late - the industry's worst on-time performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995. August's on-time performance was the second worst on record for that month, topped only by a 70 percent arrival rate in 2000.

"Endless hours sitting in an airplane on a runway with no communication between a pilot and the airport is just not right," Mr. Bush said last week.

Not all airlines suffered through poor performance in August. Aloha Airlines had the highest on-time arrival rate at 97 percent, followed by Hawaiian Holdings Inc.'s Hawaiian Airlines at 93.6 percent and Southwest Airlines at 77.7 percent, according to government data.

But almost half of Atlantic Southeast Airlines were delayed, and two of its flights arrived late every time they took off. The Delta Connection carrier, which is owned by SkyWest Inc., had the lowest on-time arrival rate at 55 percent, followed by United Airlines at 66.2 percent and Alaska Airlines at 67.1 percent.

Customer complaints nearly doubled in August to 1,634 compared with 864 in the same month last year, according to the government data. But the rates of mishandled baggage fell to about 7.6 reports per 1,000 passengers from 8.1 reports a year ago.

Delays and frustrations are not only limited to U.S. airports.

Britain's competition watchdog criticized the level of service at Heathrow and Gatwick airports Wednesday and recommended a cap on the amount that operator BAA can charge airlines as well changes to "avoid unacceptable delays to passengers, crew and flights."

[godofredo29]

I second that thought. Flying is truly overrated and, at the very least, we shouldn''t have to be subsidizing the airlines or worrying about their screwups.

[gkc99]

Here''s a thought--don''t like it--don''t fly!

[fstop100]

The airlines schedule more flights than the airport can handle and the airport doesn''t stop them. It seems nobody is in charge.

[shanev137]

Yea, and whatever you do....don''t get mad about it....or you will be taken away and shackled to a bench.

[tnt1954]

trust-busting, union busting, monopoly busting,
teddy roosevelt republicans keep winning. bully
for them. they see pink elephants wherever they go.
with the 50th anniversary of sputnik soon to come
is the 90th anniversary of the bolshevik revolution.
the independence movement was started in 1776
with the publication of wealth of nations by adam
smith, then deployed with the american revolution,
the shot heard round the world, made more extreme
with the soviet revolution. yuri gagarin was
first in space, for the soviets. they shared
and shared alike, while we fought over pieces
of apple pie and pork bellies. a society based
on self-interest cannot stand. they will fight
over everything from soap to nuts. all in self-interest and destroy each other through their
virtue of selfishness. and there will be revolts
against absolute greed and selfishness. like the
little kid on the playground at lunchtime. its
my peanut butter sandwich you cannot have a bite,
i don''t care if you haven''t eaten in ten days, its
mine. if communism doesn''t work, how come there
society survived? how come there are one billion
chinese and only 300 million americans on basically
the same land area? okay i was brainwashed growing
up to believe the opposite, or be expelled. its
sorta the union of soviet america anyway. taxed
to death.

[airknocker2]

Airrports like DFW, JFK and ATL are the aeronautical equivalent of the Los Angeles freeways at rush hour. We need to build more airports or get accustomed to traveling "off rush hour" (nights).

[macusweil]

Thank a Republican for the deregulation.

[usayesterday]

The airlines that will have the better on-time ranks are those who have hubs in locations where frequent winter storms are non-existant. Also, hubs at airports where the (current) passenger/flight traffic is moderate to low.

Airlines that have hubs in: Chicago O''Hare, New York JFK or LaGuardia, Denver, Dallas DFW, Atlanta Hartsfield, are all bound to face delays as those airports are already over maxxed out in terms of flight capacity!

This winter will be a disaster if passenger volume continues to grow as it has since 2002.

[consciousnes]

If one airline can have a 97% on time rate, what is the matter with the rest of the companies?
It just shows you that proper prior planning can make things work. You don''t try to put a size 12 foot into a size 8 shoe. It the airlines wern''t so intent on giving it top people multi-million dollar bonus, it could use some of that money to spread out the flights and make thing run on schedule.