Airlines log fewer delays, lost bags, complaints

It’s not all doom and gloom for fliers these days, and we’re not just talking bargain fares.  Passengers are arriving on time more often, losing fewer bags and filing fewer complaints,  the government says.

Besides stepped-up employee efforts,  you can credit falling air traffic — which helps smooth out operations — for these happy developments, based on past patterns.  And boy, is traffic falling.

U.S. airlines in November flew nearly 13% fewer passengers than in November 2007, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) reported today. Nearly 25% of seats on an average flight went unclaimed, or 2.4% more than in November 2007.  The upside: If you get bumped or miss a connection, you might actually land a seat on the next flight out.

Other good-news numbers this week from the DOT and its latest Air Travel Consumer Report:

Delays: More than 76% of flights by major airlines arrived on time last year, the best performance in three years.  And fewer passengers faced long waits on the tarmac.  Only 1,232 flights logged taxi-out times of three hours or more, the DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said, down 25% from 2007.

The worst of the 32 major airports for taxi-out times was New York’s JFK, averaging nearly 35 minutes from gate departure to wheels off the ground; the best was Oakland (OAK), at 10 minutes. Los Angeles (LAX) averaged a respectable 15 minutes.

Baggage loss: The odds that your bag would get lost, stolen, delayed or damaged dropped by 25% last year on major airlines, based on DOT figures.  Reports of mishandled baggage fell from 7.05 to 5.26 per 1,000 passengers between 2007 and 2008.

Complaints: Happier fliers, fewer gripes. In 2008, passengers  filed 10,643 complaints with the DOT about fares, service, flight cancellations and other issues, compared with 13,180 in 2007. Of course, there were fewer passengers too, but not enough, at 5% fewer, to fully account for the drop.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Illustration: Airlines are losing fewer bags these days. By Diane Bigda/For The Times]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 4:29 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, Frequent Flier, Luxury Travel, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.