As Airlines have begun trimming their flights, on-time performance is on the rise. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that, for the month of August 2008, airlines (that reported) were on-time 78.4 percent; a 2.7 percent increase compared to July 2008. To be fair, let’s compare to August of 2007 (71.7 percent); a 6.7 percent increase. Cancellations and delays were both down, at 1.6 percent, down .1 percent from July and .3 percent from the following year. The BTS, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, reported they received 1,006 complaints (airline wise) in August 2008. That’s a 38.7 percent decrease from the years prior.
Now for the leaders in on-time arrivals. The leaders were: Hawaiian Airlines (92.3 percent), Pinnacle Airlines (89.6 percent), and in third SkyWest Airlines (85.7 percent). JetBlue Airways performed the worst (64.7 percent), then Comair (67.4 percent), and finally American Airlines (70.6 percent). The number of mishandled bags / lost luggage dropped to 4.98 per 1,000 passengers, compared to 7.58 per 1,000 the year prior.
Surprised? Not at all. I think we’ll see the on-time numbers increase and the lost luggage numbers decrease, permitting that airlines do not make overwhelming cuts to staffing at airports.
Image: flickr.com
