I’d better be careful. If I continue my monthly habit of dissecting the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report, I’m going to wind up on the side of those people who are grousing about our country’s lack of a Passengers’ Bill of Rights.
The latest DOT report (PDF), has details about on-time performance, mishandled baggage and customer complaint data for August. It also contains information on oversales (passengers denied boarding) for the first two quarters of the year. Having combed over the information, here’s the worst of the worst:
Does the government read its own work?
Yesterday, my colleague Charlie Leocha wrote an article about what he accurately described as the “can’t do government.” The gist of his story is that unless there is a crisis, there is no movement by the Feds to fix anything. Rather than finding a solution to the matter of budgeting for FAA expenses, as Charlie pointed out the day prior, Congress simply “punted funding decisions to the incoming 111th Congress with a limited continuing resolution that expires in March 2009.”
The latest DOT report once again shows absolute proof of the dismal state of New York airspace. Consider these gems:
- The three major airports that serve New York City (JFK, LGA and EWR) were also the three nationwide with the worst rates of on-time arrivals. Flights destined for Kennedy arrived on-time only 59 percent of the time, Newark only 65 percent and LaGuardia only 66 percent.
- During the month of August, there were 74 flights nationwide that were late more than 70 percent of the time. 85 percent of those involved travel to or from the three major New York airports.
I’m starting to talk myself out of that Passengers’ Bill of Rights business, unless its the government – not the airlines – we’re going to hold responsible for this mess. I’ve written about that before.
Give up and stay home
There are some on-time performance things in this report that are so bad, they deserve their own category. In my opinion, these folks shouldn’t bother; they should pack it in and go home. And customers: caveat emptor.
At JFK, the country’s worst airport for on-time performance, there are particular hours of the day that defy description, at least in a public forum. Between 6 p.m. and 7:59 p.m., 71 percent of the flights arrive late. Between 7 p.m. and 7:59 p.m., that gets worse – 75.1 percent are late. And not to miss the party, 73.6 percent of flights between 8 p.m. and 8:59 p.m. are tardy.
At the airlines, what lands must take-off. Departing flights that leave between 8 p.m. and 8:59 p.m. are only on schedule 38.6 percent of the time. Between 9 p.m. and 9:59 p.m., that figure drops to a dismal 33.7.
According to the report, there are some airlines to avoid in some airports, not just at particular times of the day, and not just to New York City:
Atlantic Southeast (Delta Connection) to JFK – only 30 percent of flights on-time
ExpressJet (Continental Connection) to LaGuardia – only 34 percent
Mesa to Newark (US Airways Express, United Express, Delta Connection) – only 38 percent
Mesa to Boston (US Airways Express, United Express, Delta Connection) – only 42 percent
Continental to Charlotte, NC – 42 percent
United to Miami – 49 percent
Comair (Delta Connection) to Newark – 50 percent
Who’s in control here?
Airlines nowadays are required to report to the Transportation Department the cause of each flight delay. That wasn’t always the case. That information can be very useful in determining which airline has its act together and which ones are managed my Larry, Moe and Curly.
First of all, I have to say that the majority (78 percent) of the nation’s commercial flights were on-time in August. And only 6 percent of the total were delayed for reasons within an airline’s control. The DOT calls these “Air Carrier Delays,” and uses this classification when “the cause of the cancellation or delay was due to circumstances within the airline’s control (e.g. maintenance or crew problems, etc.).”
So who’s not in control? Who has the worst record for delays within an airline’s control?
Mesa Airlines (US Airways Express, United Express, Delta Connection) 13 percent controllable
Atlantic Southeast (Delta Connection) 11 percent
Comair (Delta Connection) 8.1 percent
American Airlines 8.1 percent
JetBlue 7 percent
I feel like a broken record
Once again, beleaguered US Airways is at the bottom of the heap when it comes to customer complaints. People just love to hate ‘em. For the first eight months of this year, they’ve been last or darn close to it. Paradoxically, their on-time performance record has been steadily improving, yet in August, US Airways had more complaints specifically about flight problems than any other airline.
In fact, it’s more than just a 2008 thing. Historically, US Airways has been last place, or tied for last place, in the customer complaint rankings every year since 2004. I feel like that old LP of Abbey Road I used to have that kept playing the words “bang, bang Maxwell’s silver hammer” over and over and over again.
If someone can explain why they keep getting so many complaints, your fellow readers and I would love to read about it in the comments section below, or the TalkingTravelers forum of our Web site. I’ve given my opinions over the last few months; maybe some of your anecdotal evidence might help.
