Lengthy tarmac delays and canceled flights decreased in March compared with a year ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported today.
March was the fourth month in the past six that U.S. airlines reported no tarmac delays longer than three hours, compared with 25 in March 2010.
That suggests an aviation consumer rule enacted a year ago may be effective. It prohibits airlines from keeping passengers on board airliners on the tarmac for more than three hours without facing stiff fines.
Airlines reported 16 tarmac delays of more than three hours from May 2010 through March, compared with 689 reported from May 2009 through March 2010.
Carriers in March reported that .03 percent of their scheduled flights had tarmac delays of two hours or more, down from .04 percent reported in February 2011.
Aviation industry critics of the consumer rule contended airlines simply would cancel flights to avoid lengthy tarmac delays, but that has not been the case. Carriers in March canceled 1.3 percent of their flights, compared with 1.5 percent in March 2010.
Lengthy tarmac delays are rare at Tampa International Airport, with the few cases over the years being flights trapped during heavy lightning that prohibited passengers from leaving the aircraft.
Tampa International continued its better than average on-time flight performance, with 82.7 of departures within 15 minutes of schedule -- eighth best nationwide - and 80.1 percent of arrivals meeting the DOT on-time benchmark – 13th best nationwide.
The 16 major carriers recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 79.2 percent in March, down slightly from the 80.0 percent on-time rate of March 2010.
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