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And the airline with the most cancellations in June is …

August 6, 2007

Pop quiz: Which U.S. airline had the highest cancellation rate in June, according to the latest Transportation Department numbers. No peeking!

Was it:

A) Mesa Airlines; B) American Eagle Airlines; or C) Northwest Airlines?

If you answered C) you’ve probably been spending too much time in the echo chamber of the travel blogosphere. Yeah, Northwest canceled a lot of flights, and yeah, its chief executive, Doug Steenland, apologized for them after reporting a sizeable quarterly profit at the end of this month.

But two other airlines, Mesa and American Eagle, canceled more flights on a percentage basis than Northwest (Mesa’s rate was 6.4 percent, American Eagle’s was 5.9 percent and Northwest’s was 5.3 percent).

Where are all the stories with quotes from outraged passengers? Somebody show me just one.

The June numbers, as a whole, are a disaster. Among the highlights:

» On-time performance in the first half of 2007 was the worst ever. Roughly one-third of domestic flights on major U.S. airlines were late.

» Complaints about airline service for the first six months of 2007 were up up 47.2 percent from a year ago. The DOT received 6,151 complaints, which is probably a record, too.

» Mishandled baggage numbers are off the charts as well. During the first six months of this year, U.S. carriers reported a mishandled baggage rate of 7.34 reports per 1,000 passengers, up from the 5.86 mishandled baggage rate during the same period a year ago.

» The sole “bright” spot? In June, 44.97 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, up 6.92 percent from the previous June. So all that talk about the weather being the main reason for the delays wasn’t just an excuse. The airlines were right.

As the great philosopher Howard Jones once said: “Things can only get better.”

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

3 comments

  • Christopher

    Does whomever compiles these statistics take the airlines’ word for it when they say a flight was cancelled due to weather, or do they actually investigate?

  • Robbie

    I returned to the east coast from western Illinois yesterday via Northwest Air, connecting through Minneapolis. My flight was to be 1022, MSP to EWR, scheduled to depart at 12:55 p.m.. When I got to Minneapolis, 1022 was listed as a 2 p.m. departure due to traffic congestion. We boarded beginning at 1:30 and all was looking good. I checked my PDA/phone at 2 (when nothing much had happened) and the NW website now listed the departure as 3 p.m. Within minutes, the flight attendant announced that our departure had been pushed back another hour (I’m not sure if that was the 2 to 3 push back or yet another push to 4 p.m.) and that the flight, therefore, would be cancelled. The full plane of passengers was asked to gather all of their belongings and reture to the terminal to be rebooked.

    I phoned my husband while waiting to deboard and had him pull up my reservation which said I had been rebooked on NW1044, originally scheduled to leave at 3 p.m. and now showing a 4:30 departure. That flight did depart just after 4 p.m. for a wheels up of 4:15.

    As I exited the plane (knowing I had my rebooking and knowing that I could get a new boarding card at any kiosk or desk), I viewed 50-100 passengers lined up at the departure gate desk hoping to get on new flights. A real zoo!

    With NW cancelling so many flights, it really pays to be a frequent flyer and an electronic flyer too!

  • hoffnung

    Several qualifications I would suggest:
    1. I guessed A Eagle, as I’ve been folowing the stories and knew it wouldn’t be NW, but as the commuters fly smaller planes, hence psgr numbers, the numbers on NW are likely to be more significant and more likely to raise the antennae of newsdoggies looking for a story
    2. some of NW’s reported weather-related canc are likely bogus, as no such signif weather events were reported for other carriers operating from same airports on same dates.
    3. Steenland’s apology was as much devoted to shifting blame as to anything that seemed a sincere act of contrition. I didn’t see any tears.
    4. Reports from DOT of flite canc numbers do not include those done over a wk in adv of flite, but NW was doing a lot of those in early month to pretty up the official stats for July. I think it strains belief to imagine they weren’t doing it in 6-07 as well.
    Regards,
    W Hoffnung

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