DOT: Airlines improve reliability in October, after recovering from September hurricanes

WASHINGTON – Airlines had mixed results on punctuality in October, but dramatically reduced their cancellations from a September dominated by hurricanes, the Transportation Department reported Tuesday.

Flights arrived within 15 minutes of their schedules 84.8% of time among the dozen reporting airlines, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That rate was better than 83.6% in September, but down from 85.5% for the same month a year earlier.

The most punctual carriers were Hawaiian Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Spirit Airlines. The carriers with the lowest on-time arrival rates were Virgin America, JetBlue Airways and regional carrier ExpressJet, which flies feeder flights for American, Delta and United.

Airlines reported no lengthy tarmac delays for domestic flights in October, after eight in September. The department is investigating two lengthy delays on international flights in October, compared to one in September.

Both lengthy delays were in Los Angeles on Oct. 28, one for Japan Airlines delayed nearly 5 hours while headed to Tokyo Narita and the other for Air Canada delayed nearly 5 hours while headed to Toronto.

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Flight cancellations were way down. Airlines cancelled 0.7% of their domestic flights in October, down from 3.3% in September when Hurricane Irma pummeled Florida and Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. The rate also improved from 1% in October 2016.

Delta, which prides itself on reliability, canceled just 10 flights in October out of 79,476 in the month. It was followed by United Airlines, which canceled 0.3% of its flights, and Hawaiian which canceled 0.4% of its flights.

Carriers with the highest cancellation rates were JetBlue at 2.1%, Virgin America with 1.6% and SkyWest with 1.5%. SkyWest is a regional carrier that flies as a feeder affiliate for American, Delta, United and Alaska airlines. 

The rate of mishandling bags ticked up a bit from the September record that was the lowest rate in 30 years. Airlines got 2.04 reports of mishandled bags for every 1,000 passengers in October, compared to a 1.99 rate in September and 2.06 in the same month a year earlier.

Complaints against airlines dropped sharply. Overall, airlines received 1,188 complaints from consumers, down 24.6% from the 1,576 in September and down 6.5% from the 1,270 filed in October 2016.

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