TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Despite Groundings, Flight Delays Drop In April

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: June 5, 2008

WASHINGTON - Domestic airlines' on-time arrival rate improved in April despite more than 3,900 flights canceled by American Airlines, according to government data released Wednesday.

More than 22 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived late, were canceled or diverted in April, according to the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That is down from more than 24 percent of late flights in the same month last year and more than 28 percent in March.

The drop in delays - which was accompanied by declines in mishandled baggage and customer complaints - came despite the fact that many carriers were forced to ground flights in April amid unprecedented government scrutiny of maintenance issues.

AMR Corp.'s American, the nation's largest carrier, canceled 7.6 percent of its flights in April compared with an industry average of 1.7 percent, according to the government data. That includes an American Airlines flight on April 23 from Dallas to Tampa that was delayed 3 hours and 5 minutes on the ground in Dallas after taxiing from the gate because of weather and air traffic control issues, according to the Department of Transportation.

Overall, Tampa International Airport ranked ninth nationwide in on-time departures in April, with 83.2 percent of flights leaving within 15 minutes of schedule, the Department of Transportation standard for on time, compared with 81.3 percent on-time departures a year ago. The airport ranked 15th nationwide in arrivals performance in April, with 78.7 percent of flights on time, compared with 77.5 percent on time in April 2007.

The Transportation Department last month said government and industry officials must improve procedures for complying with maintenance and safety rules to avoid massive flight cancellations, like those that left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded when American and other carriers had to ground MD-80 jetliners to inspect or redo wiring. Those inspections were supposed to have been completed in March and followed revelations of a too-cozy relationship between the industry and regulators.

Still, the biggest cause of flight delays remains the weather, which accounted for nearly 38 percent of late flights in April, down from about 42 percent in the same month last year.

Carriers replacing big planes with smaller ones to fly with fewer empty seats also crowd the skies and gates, analysts say.

Reports of mishandled baggage improved in April to about 5 per 1,000 passengers from more than 6.3 per 1,000 passengers in the same month last year. Passenger complaints also fell to 1,113 from 1,248 in the year-ago period.

Tribune reporter Ted Jackovics contributed to this report.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT