Rising airline delays, complaints have feds threatening to step in

WASHINGTON – With one in four domestic flights arriving late this year, the airline industry is hearing from passengers and the government that patience is wearing thin.

Aviation officials are considering forcing carriers to shrink their flight schedules or to pay more to fly during peak travel periods, though the traveling public could end up with higher fares as a result.

“Ideally, you want a solution that maximizes value for the flying public, not a blunt tool” like a mandate to cut a certain percentage of flights or price jumps that are then passed on to consumers, said airline consultant Robert Mann, of Port Washington, N.Y.

On Wednesday, the Transportation Department said 25.2 percent of domestic flights arrived late between January and August – easily the industry’s worst performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995.

In August, the nation’s 20 largest carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 71.7 percent, down from 75.8 percent a year ago. At the same time, customer complaints nearly doubled to 1,634 in August compared with 864 a year earlier.

The industry’s on-time rate was 69.8 percent in July and 68.1 percent in June.

The airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration blame the delays on outdated air traffic control technology, bad weather and increasing passenger traffic. Commercial airlines’ use of smaller planes and an increase in general aviation by business travelers also increased air and runway congestion, analysts said.

The industry has blamed everyone except themselves for the delays, but cannot ignore the recent flurry of government and flier attention, Mann said.

There were 159 flights kept on the tarmac for more than three hours before taking off in August.