U.S. Carriers Continued to Report Poor On-time Results in August

Southwest was the best on-time performer among the major U.S. carriers in another poor on-time month for the U.S. airline industry as a whole, as, mercifully for air travelers, their summer of inconvenience and discontent came to an end.

Southwest posted 77.7 percent on-time arrivals for domestic flights in August, the Transportation Dept. reported Oct. 3 in its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. The DOT counts a flight as on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule.

Continental ranked second among major carriers at 75.3 percent, followed by AirTran at 71.2 percent. United ranked worst among the majors at 66.2 percent, with Alaska next worst at 67.1 percent and Northwest third from the bottom at 68.2 percent.

According to the report, travelers were most likely to arrive late if they were traveling to New York’s LaGuardia or Kennedy airports, where only 57.6 percent and 58.7 percent of arrivals were on time, respectively. Philadelphia (61.3 percent), Newark (61.9 percent) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (62.4 percent) weren’t much better.

On-time departure rates were lowest at Atlanta (62.7 percent), Kennedy (63.3 percent), Philadelphia (63.5 percent), Chicago O’Hare (64 percent), Newark (66.4 percent), Chicago Midway (67.8 percent) and LaGuardia (68.9 percent).

More than 25 percent of flights have arrived late through the first eight months of this year, topping the previous high of 23.7 percent in 2000. More than 22 percent have departed late; that figure had never even reached 20 percent before.