An article published on January
22, 2008 in Wall Street Journal reported that analysis of extreme-delay data
from last year shows clear patterns: Certain airlines and certain airports were
more prone than others to long delays before takeoff and very late arrivals.
Even certain flights had repeated trouble with very long delays.
Airlines say some flights simply
end up at the end of long lines more often than others because they try to
depart at the airport's busiest time. But it can be more than just unfortunate
timing. Airline operations managers can juggle departures because of factors
like which crews may run out of duty time first, which planes are more urgently
needed for their next scheduled flight, which flights have the most high-dollar
business travelers who they least want to be canceled, and which flights are
headed to destinations with late-night curfews — where airlines can be fined
for flights arriving after a certain hour.
Another factor that affects
extremely long sitting: Airlines are less likely to cancel flights that move on
to other hubs in their systems rather than turn around and go back to the same
airport they just left. If a plane is going out and back to the same hub,
canceling the trip just impacts those two flights. But if the aircraft is
scheduled to move on to numerous cities, canceling that flight could disrupt
many more customers. As a result, aircraft that aren't scheduled for
"turns" are more likely to sit and wait long periods before the
flight gets canceled.
Extreme delays are rare, but the problem escalated dramatically last year,
becoming the focus of Congressional hearings and legislation. The number of
flights with taxi-out times of more than three hours totaled 1,598 for the
first 11 months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
(The agency hasn't released December data yet.) That's a 23.4% increase over
the entire year of 2006, and December 2007 clearly added to the total for 2007
with widespread delays over the holiday season.
Airlines with highest percentage in 2007 of flights delayed 45 minutes or
more: Atlantic Southeast: 15.1%, JetBlue: 13.8%, American: 13.6%.
Airlines with the lowest percentage of flights delayed 45 minutes or more:
Hawaiian: 1.69%, Frontier: 6.10%, Southwest: 6.13%.
Highest average length of delays: JetBlue: 67 minutes, Mesa: 64 minutes,
ExpressJet: 64 minutes, Atlantic Southeast: 62 minutes, American: 61 minutes
Lowest average delay: Frontier: 43 minutes, Southwest: 48 minutes,
Northwest: 49 minutes, US Airways: 49 minutes, Hawaiian: 50 minutes.
Source: McCartney, Scott, “Extreme Delays: Which
Flights Are,” Wall Street Journal, January
22,2008.