Pity the passengers on AirTran Flight 576, which is supposed to leave Atlanta every afternoon at 4:54 p.m. and arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey at 7:07 p.m. When it actually gets there, however, is anyone’s guess.
That’s because Flight 576 had the dubious distinction of being late more often – 72 percent of the time – than any other flight in the United States from June 2004 to June 2005, according to an Air Travel Consumer Report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
As dismal as that might sound, some travelers have had it even worse this year. For a full month, six different flights from airlines including United, Delta, Independence Air and AirTran were delayed 100 percent of the time.
The Transportation Department defines a delayed flight as one that departs or arrives at least 15 minutes after the scheduled time.
This is not a good time for time- conscious air travelers. Data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics released last week showed that this was shaping up to be the worst year since 2000 for departure delays. From June 2004 to June 2005, 17 percent of flights, or nearly one in five, left airports late.
To placate exasperated passengers, airlines have scrambled to get their planes in on time – by flying faster once in the air, for example, which burns more fuel. This has actually led to a slight improvement in on-time arrivals so far this year: 78 percent, versus 77.8 percent last year.
But at certain times of day, such as late afternoon and evening, and at some airports, such as Atlanta Hartsfield, Newark Liberty and Chicago O’Hare, delays are almost a given, and airline timetables bear little semblance to reality.
At Denver International Airport from January through June, departures were on time 80.73 percent of the time.
Chris McGinnis, editor of travel newsletter The Ticket, said airlines are trying to get as many jets in the sky as possible each day with hopes of making a little money on each one.
“There are just too many flights trying to get in and out, and that means that there are some flights that are really, really bad,” said McGinnis.
Airlines say they would like to do better, and several, including Delta, United and American, have made attempts to improve their performance at the most delay-prone airports.
Fundamentally, however, they say they are hampered by the nation’s overstretched air-traffic-control system, by weather and the need to offer enough flights to compete.
And unless told by the government to cut back- as happened to American and United at Chicago O’Hare – they simply keep flying.
But while Christopher Mayer, a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, said airlines have all the tools they need to fix their flight delays. He sees a more important factor at play: cheap fares.
With passengers intent on paying as little as they can for plane tickets, airlines don’t think they can successfully market timeliness, he said. So most simply let the issue slide.