Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Airlines: Scheduled Flights Performance

Most On-Time U.S. Airlines

Weather in one part of the country can affect flights in another part of the country . You may not see the weather issue where you are. Frustrating as it may be, it means that high winds in New York could keep a flight grounded in Atlanta. Weather-related delays are most common in summer because of thunderstorms, and winter, due to snow and ice.

But there are ways to lessen the chances of finding yourself on that mythic delayed flight from hell. Choose days that are less traffic-heavy (read: not the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) and flying into smaller airports, which tend to have fewer punctuality problems. This may be one reason four of the top ten on-time airlines in the U.S—Pinnacle, Frontier, Skywest and AirTran—are regional carriers.

Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Mosley says there tend to be more delays at bigger airports because they have more traffic. “Across the board, delays have been easing a bit, but certain larger airports have had very chronic delays,” says Mosley, who points to LaGuardia, JFK, Newark and O’Hare as some of the least punctual airports in the country.

Rankings were compiled based on monthly statistics provided by the Department of Transportation and calculated by Forbes Traveler on an annual basis. The DOT computes percentages based on data contributed from the 19 airlines with at least 1% of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues.

On Time Performance: