The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) January 2018 Air Travel Consumer Report delivered positives all around for the month of November 2017, highlighting greater arrival time rates and lower cancellation rates.
It was, in fact, a near record-setting rate for arrivals, with carriers boasting an on-time arrival rate of 88.3 percent–making it the second highest rate ever reported. Meanwhile, only 0.3 percent of scheduled domestic flights were canceled, which made for a 0.4 percent drop from October’s rate. Further refining that, airlines actually reported no tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights, and nothing more than four hours on international flights. No regularly scheduled flights were chronically delayed.
For those flights that were delayed, however, weather remains the top contributor. Aviation system delays, late-arriving aircraft, and maintenance or crew problems, as well as security reasons, were all contributors as well. Total, however, only 0.31 percent of flights were canceled and 0.13 percent diverted.
Treatment of passengers, animals, and equipment had to be considered as well. Mishandled baggage was reported on 1.83 cases out of every 1,000 passengers. A single animal injury was reported while traveling by air, down from the five such deaths reported the previous month. Where people are concerned, though, 63 complaints linked to treatment of those with disabilities were filed over the course of the month and discrimination claims–be they for race, ethnicity, color, religion or sex–reached 13. More general airline service complaints rose 9.3 percent over the month, however, to 1,2999 complaints.
Oversales data was the only data in the report filed quarterly rather than monthly. For the third quarter of 2017, a bumping rate of 0.15 per 10,000 passengers was reported, making it the lowest quarterly rate dating back to 1995.