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Airline On-time Rates Improve Over Last Year
 According
to the Department of Transportation's (DOT) monthly Air Travel Consumer
Report, the best airline on-time rate for June went to Continental, with
81.5% of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule. US Airways
ranked a close second at 81%, and America West third at 80.3%. Alaska
ranked last among the 10 reporting carriers at 74.6%.
For the industry as a whole, the ten U.S. carriers included in the report
posted an on-time performance of 78.6% for the month, not as good as May's
82.8% but better than June 2001's
75.2%. The largest U.S. airlines also reduced their rates of involuntary
denied boarding, or bumping, during the second quarter of 2002 and the
first half of this year, the DOT reported.
The DOT requires that all airlines submit on-time performance statistics
for many reasons. But what does this mean to travelers? When booking your
airline reservations, your reservation agent will be able to give you
an average ranking for each flight, so you know the average ranking of
that specific flight in the past. For example, when flying from Minneapolis
to Chicago, United's 7am flight into O'Hare is ranked 5 on the on-time
performance. Northwest has a flight at the exact same time, however it
is ranked 7 (nine is the highest ranking offered).
Of course this does not guarantee that your flight will be on time, as
there are a variety of factors including severe weather, runway closures
and equipment failures. It is simply another tool you may use to plan
the best options for your business trip.
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