Airlines Evade 3-Hour Tarmac Rule For 2nd Straight Month

NEW YORK — There were no airplanes stuck on the ground for more than three hours in November – the second straight month airlines avoided long delays, the government said Tuesday.

That's little comfort to all the travelers stranded by huge snow storms that grounded thousands of flights in December. The Department of Transportation won't report those statistics until next month.

While there were no long delays, there were more delays overall in November. The largest U.S. airlines reported their average on-time rate was 83.2 percent in November, down from both the prior month and a year ago.

Hawaiian Airlines once again clinched the top spot, followed by United Airlines. The airline with the worst record of on-time flights was SkyWest, which operates regional flights for Delta, United and AirTran. JetBlue was second to last. Those two airlines and Southwest were the only three out of the top 18 U.S. airlines that operated less than 4 out of 5 flights on-time.

DOT labeled one of Southwest's flights between New York's LaGuardia and Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport as chronically delayed, because it was more than 30 minutes late more than half the time for two straight months.

Airlines also canceled more flights in November than a year earlier, but less than in October. There were 11 canceled flights with tarmac delays of more than two hours in November. Airlines generally instruct pilots to turn around at the two-hour mark, if departure isn't expected soon, to avoid huge fines. There weren't any such cancellations in November 2009.

Complaints to the government from passengers about airline service rose 20 percent from a year earlier, but they were down 11 percent from October. Most of the complaints in November were about flight problems like cancellations and delays.

Airlines did a worse job of delivering bags where they were supposed to go in November. U.S. carriers had a mishandled baggage rate of about 2.93 per 1,000 passengers, up from both October 2010 and November 2009.

November was the seventh full month of data since the new rule threatening huge fines for planes waiting on the tarmac for more than three hours. The Transportation Department said this shows the rule is working. It hasn't levied any fines yet for violations.

October was the first month there were no three-hour-plus delays since the government started tracking them in 2008.

Comments

[dbrett480]

01:20 PM on 01/27/2011

The 3 hour rule makes sense. But all the passengers who had their flights canceled would probably disagree.

[Parade Keegan]

09:18 PM on 01/13/2011

This isn't the proper place to post my comment but I'm hoping the reviewers will contact me or direct the appropriate people to contact me as I am either stupid or blind, I do own the Luddite aspects of my self though I'm trying to overcome these shortcomings. I am trying to locate the link within The Huffington Post to submit a Letter to the Editor. I love the Huffington Post and have some feedback for the editors.

Thank You,
Parade Keegan

[onlythetruthcounts]

05:32 PM on 01/11/2011

My solution to this problem is simple and practical. It doesn't involve becoming an unpaid stripper for TSA either. My solution is to not fly.