U.S. Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report Issued: MARCH 2002 Includes data for the following periods: Flight Delays January 2002 12 Months Ending January 2002 Mishandled Baggage January 2002 Oversales 4th Quarter 2001 January-December 2001 Consumer Complaints January 2002 (Includes Disability Complaints) Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/ TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Page Section Page INTRODUCTION ......................…2 Flight Delays Explanation ......................…3 Mishandled Baggage Table 1 ......................…4 Explanation ....................…..17 Overall Percentage of Reported Flight Ranking ....................…..18 Operations Arriving On Time, by Carrier Table 1A ......................…5 Oversales Overall Percentage of Reported Flight Explanation ....................…..19 Operations Arriving On Time and Carrier Rank, by Month, Quarter, and Data Base to Date Ranking--Quarter ....................…..20 Table 2 ......................…6 Ranking--YTD ....................…..21 Number of Reported Flight Arrivals and Per- centage Arriving On Time, by Carrier and Airport Consumer Complaints Table 3 ......................…8 Explanation ....................…..22 Percentage of All Carriers' Reported Flight Complaint Tables 1-5 ..............23 Operations Arriving On Time, by Airport and Summary, Complaint Categories, U.S. Airlines, Time of Day Incident Date, and Companies Other Than Table 4 .....................…9 U.S. Airlines Percentage of All Carriers' Reported Flight Rankings, Table 6 ..............28 Operations Departing On Time, by Airport and Complaint Categories ..............29 Time of Day Table 5 ...................…10 List of Regularly Scheduled Flights Arriving Late 80% of the Time or More Table 6 .......................11 Number and Percentage of Regularly Scheduled Flights Arriving Late 70% of the Time or More Table 7 .......................12 On-Time Arrival and Departure Percentage, by Airport Table 8 .......................14 Overall Number and Percentage of Flight Cancellations, by Carrier Footnotes .......................15 Appendix .......................16 2 INTRODUCTION The Air Travel Consumer Report is a monthly product of the Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings. The report is designed to assist consumers with information on the quality of services provided by the airlines. The report is divided into four sections. These sections deal with flight delays, mishandled baggage, oversales and consumer complaints. Each section of the report is preceded by a brief explanation of how to read and understand the information provided. The report normally is released by the end of the first week of each month. The report is available via the Internet at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/ NOTE TO CONSUMERS REGARDING FLIGHT DELAY DATA Flight delays can be caused by a variety of factors, for example: severe weather, aircraft maintenance, runway closures, customer service issues, air traffic control system decisions and equipment failures. The data on which this report is based do not identify the cause, only the occurrence, of flight delays. 3 FLIGHT DELAYS This section provides information about airline on-time performance, flight Tables 3 and 4 provide information by airport and time of day. Table 5 is a list delays, and cancellations. It is based on data filed by airlines each month with of the most frequently delayed flights, showing the percentage of each flight's the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (Office operations that were late that month and the average and median number of of Airline Information), as described in 14 CFR Part 234 of DOT's regulations. minutes the flight was late. The flights with the highest percentage of late It covers nonstop scheduled-service flights between points within the United operations are listed first in Table 5; where percentages are identical, flights are States (including territories) by the ten U.S. air carriers that have at least one listed alphabetically by carrier code. Table 6, like Tables 1, 1A, and 2, presents percent of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues. (Aloha Airlines data by carrier, but lists the carriers in rank order from worst to best based on reported data voluntarily for the period October 2000 through October 2001; TWA the number of flights which were late 70% of the time or more. Table 7 lists ceased operating in December 2001). more than 200 cities in alphabetical order with the corresponding on-time arrival and departure percentages. The rule requires carriers to currently report on operations to and from the 32 U.S. airports that account for at least one percent of the nation's total domestic Tables 3, 4, and 5 contain information on the time of day that a flight operated. scheduled-service passenger enplanements (see Appendix for a complete list of All times are local. A 10:50 a.m. departure from Atlanta is 10:50 a.m. Atlanta the reportable airports). However, all reporting airlines have voluntarily time; if that flight arrived in Dallas at 11:45 a.m., that is 11:45 a.m. Dallas time. provided data for their entire domestic systems, and that information is included If a flight's scheduled operating time changed during the month, Table 5 shows in this report. the time that was in effect for the last flight operation performed that month. A flight is counted as "on time" if it operated less than 15 minutes after the Table 8 displays the number of operations, number of flight cancellations, and scheduled time shown in the carriers' Computerized Reservations Systems. All percentage of cancellations by air carrier for the reportable airports and for the tables in this report except Table 4 are based on gate arrival times; Table 4 is air carriers’ domestic system. based on gate departure times. Cancelled and diverted operations are counted as late. This report provides summary information; except for the few flights listed in Table 5, it does not show the on-time record of individual flights. A printout In fulfilling DOT’s data reporting requirements, the reporting air carriers use showing the performance of each specific flight reported to DOT is available for automated and/or manual systems for collecting flight data. Those using an inspection in the Reports Reference Room (room 4201) of the Office of Airline automated system rely on the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Information at DOT's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The on-time Reporting System (ACARS). Based on the latest information available to DOT, performance for individual markets and flights can be searched at of the 10 reporting air carriers, 4 (American, Northwest, United and US http://www.bts.gov/ntda/oai/. Computer tapes containing data for all reported Airways) use ACARS exclusively; 3 (Alaska, America West and Southwest) flight operations are available for purchase from the Transportation Systems rely solely on their pilots, gate agents and/or ground crews to record arrival Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Department cannot respond to times manually; and 3 (American Eagle, Continental and Delta) use a inquiries about the performance of individual flights. combination of ACARS and manual reporting systems. However, information on the performance of specific flights is displayed on the As indicated above, a carrier may voluntarily file data for its entire domestic Computerized Reservations Systems used by most airlines and travel agencies. system. Tables 2, 3, and 4 are limited to the 31 required or "reportable" Each of the reporting carriers' flights has a one-digit code between 0 and 9 airports; Tables 5, 6 and 7 contain data on flights to/from all airports that were representing that flight's percentage of on-time operations for the latest reported reported. Tables 1 and 8 each have one column for the 32 "reportable" airports month. For example, "8" means that flight arrived on time (within 15 minutes) and another for all of the airports reported; see footnote C for additional between 80% and 89.9% of the time during the latest reported month. explanation. Tables 1 through 4 display percentages of flight operations that were on time, while Tables 5 and 6 show service that was late. Tables 1, 1A, and 2 present data by carrier; airlines are ranked by performance in Table 1 and are listed in alphabetical order by carrier code in Table 2 (see Appendix for codes). Beginning with the February 1988 report, Table 1A shows carrier rankings by month and time-series data on the percentage of flight operations that arrived on time. 4 JANUARY 2002 AIR TRAVEL CONSUMER REPORT TABLE 1. OVERALL PERCENTAGE OF REPORTED FLIGHT OPERATIONS ARRIVING ON TIME BY CARRIER * AT 32 REPORTABLE AIRPORTS B/ AT ALL REPORTED AIRPORTS C/ ---------------------------- ---------------------------- NUMBER OF PERCENT OF NUMBER OF PERCENT OF AIRPORTS ARRIVALS AIRPORTS ARRIVALS CARRIER A/ REPORTED ON TIME D/ REPORTED ON TIME D/ ------------------------- --------- ----------- --------- ---------- AMERICA WEST S/ 26 85.6 50 86.3 SOUTHWEST S/ 15 83.9 59 84.6 CONTINENTAL S/ 30 83.6 78 83.8 AMERICAN S/ 32 82.8 101 83.0 US AIRWAYS S/ 27 81.1 70 81.1 AMERICAN EAGLE S/ 20 82.1 104 80.9 UNITED S/ 31 79.8 85 79.8 NORTHWEST S/ 32 79.9 111 79.3 ALASKA S/ 10 77.1 38 75.0 DELTA S/ 32 75.3 110 74.9 T O T A L 80.8 81.0 For simplicity, statistics are displayed to one decimal place. Actual ranking order is based on our computer carrying out the number of decimal places to nine.