Throughout the month of December, and specifically during the final days approaching the holidays, many airports across the nation encountered brutal storms that left thousands of travelers stranded at airports. From information collected at flightstats.com, the winner airport this holiday season was North Carolina’s Charlotte Douglas Airport, a major hub for US Airways. 74% of flights during the month of December were on-time at the airport. Coming in a near second was Dallas / Fort Worth Airport with 72% of flights on-time. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines were among the top 3 on-time airlines for the month of September; both based in Dallas. The overall network on-time average, for all flights within the U.S., was approximately 65%, down a few points from last December. The Charlotte Observer reported that 31% of holiday flights were late.
Other airports cannot report the same good news that Dallas and Charlotte boasted. Newark was hit the hardest with just 51% of flights on-time – I think we can assume that hurt Continental Airlines severely. Due to the winter storms in the Pacific, that seemed like they’d never stop, airports such as Seattle-Tacoma only saw 55% of flights on-time. Alaska Airlines was hard hit by the slow-down, reporting that flights were 58.4% on-time for the month. Chicago’s O’Hare airport, another hub for American Airlines – but also the base for United Air Lines, saw a mere 55% of flights on-time.
December 21 was the worst day for travelers; delaying / canceling 60% of the nation’s flights during that day. You would expect flights to be more on-time than last travel season, considering the major capacity cuts that airlines have made throughout 2008; but if my memory serves me right the weather was much worse this holiday season compared to 2007′s. What can we expect in 2009: flights to be more on-time this year, but connections may be a bit longer this year. You can read about the year’s winners and losers for both airlines and airports at Cheapflights.com.
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