DOT: Fewer U.S. Flights On-Time, But Airline Industry Improving Overall

Flight passengers are waiting longer at United States airports while the performance of the airline industry is improving generally, according to a new study by the federal Department of Transportation.

The report, out this week, showed the nation's largest airlines were on-schedule 79.9 percent of the time in March, down from 82.2 percent during the same period in 2012.

The carriers also cancelled 1.6 percent of their domestic flights last month, up from 1 percent in March of last year, USA Today reports.

The latest statistics were actually an improvement over airline performance three months ago in February, when those same carriers were on-schedule 79.6 of the time and canceled 2.4 percent of their flights.

The first three months of this year, the airlines' average 80.13 percent arrival rate was the fourth highest for the same period in the 19 years that the Bureau of Transportation Statistics has collected data. Conversely, the 1.82 percent flight cancellation rate for the first quarter of 2013 was the fourth lowest in 19 years.

Overall, USA Today reported, airlines have been on an extended streak of getting passengers and their bags to destinations on time and canceling fewer flights.

Analysts generally attribute the performance levels to milder weather, along with changes airlines made in their operations.

Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann and Co., an airline consulting firm, suspects consolidation in the industry also helped.

"Fewer flights mean less congestion, fewer delays, misconnects, mishandled bags," he said, adding the new statistics represent "the new normal in a consolidating industry."

The DOT survey also revealed airlines mishandled fewer bags in March, with an average of 3.05 reports of mishandled bags for every 1,000 passengers, down from last year's March rate of 3.09.

But, looking at the first quarter, the airlines reported 3.15 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, whereas there were an average 3.01 reports of lost, delayed or damaged bags per 1,000 passengers in the fist quarter of 2012.

Nonetheless, said Katie Connell, a spokeswoman for the industry group Airlines for America, "airlines and their employees remained focused on getting their customers where they need to be as safely, efficiently and comfortably as possible, all while navigating some severe weather challenges."

The report also noted airlines had no tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights and there was one delay of more than four hours on an international flight in March.

All carriers must give passengers the opportunity to get off the plane if a tarmac delay is going to exceed three hours on domestic flights. International flights have a four-hour limit.

Overall, with 687 complaints this March compared to 755 in March last year, consumers complained less about U.S. airline service.

The trend was once again reversed in the first quarter, when as the DOT received 2,282 complaints, up from the 2,006 filed during last year's first quarter of 2012.

The most on-time airlines were Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines, while the least on-time airlines were regional carrier ExpressJet, JetBlue and Frontier.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say they're running like a finely tuned watch, but it's getting close because of fewer carriers, fewer flights, fewer checked bags, and the Transportation Department hammer of extremely steep fines for certain long delays," said Alan Bender, professor of aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

"Overall," he said, this is simply more evidence that U.S. airlines are getting better and better operationally."