Cheatin’ airlines fudge departure times, says government

A just-released government report has found that when it comes to reporting their departure times, some airlines have been cheating. How’s that? If, for some reason, a flight has to return to the gate, carriers have been reporting the second departure — not the first — as their actual departure.

Put differently, let’s imagine you’re running a race, but you get off to a bad start. So you just return to the line, reset the clock, and start again.

The Transportation Department puts the problem in more diplomatic terms, saying that some carriers are “not uniformly reporting” instances when departing flights returned to the gate and then departed the gate a second time. “The gate departure time that should be reported is the time when the aircraft first left the departure gate,” it says.

But now the government has said “enough.” In a technical directive made public late yesterday, the feds clarified the reporting of gate departure times when a flight returns to the gate. It basically says airlines aren’t allowed to reset the clock again.

(I should note that the actual directive is dated this April. Given the public outcry around that time about long tarmac delays, it makes me wonder why the government took so long to make this document public on its Web site. Who was it protecting?)

The DOT didn’t name names, but it’s not too difficult to guess which airlines have been cooking the books. At least three airlines have been fined by the feds for inadequate reporting.

Interesting side note: the most telling part of the report involved another type of delay — that involving airport security. I quote:

Long lines at the passenger screening area can cause carriers to delay flights, cause passenger inconvenience and anxiety, and create its own security risks. By the nature of the airline business, many screening areas have processing peaks and valleys, which generally result from a large number of flights being scheduled in a short period of time.

While the Department is not mandating how air carriers schedule flights, it may be in the carriers’ self-interest to review scheduling practices to alleviate delays both inside the airport and on the tarmac.

While TSA is in control of passenger screening, the air carriers are responsible for managing the lines up to the screening lanes. Carriers can alleviate the need hold flights for passengers in screening queues by bringing those passengers to the front of the line. Managing the line becomes more problematical when the carrier has multiple flights scheduled to depart at the same time or multi carriers use the same screening areas.

Lines at some screening points amass early in the morning, after there were long lines at the carriers’ check-in-counter. The check-in lines quickly disperse when air carriers add service agents. These passengers gather at the screening queue. The problem could be lessened or avoided by air carriers rescheduling service-agents assignments to encourage a more even flow of passengers to the screening areas.

You know, it sounds to me like the government is blaming the airlines for the long wait times we passengers have to endure at the airport. Then again, maybe I’m reading this the wrong way.

But I digress. What’s wrong with this picture? The airlines are on the honor system to report their arrival and departure information, and that’s just stupid.

Passengers are entitled to on-time information that’s reported by an objective third party, and delivered in real time. In other words, what the system needs isn’t another directive — it needs an overhaul.

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.

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