Chicago’s mammoth O’Hare airport led all the nation’s major airports in flight delays in 2004, according to a federal Bureau of Transportation study issued this week. The delays at O’Hare occurred despite an August 2004 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) order reducing the amount of airline traffic in and out of the airport.
American Airlines and United Airlines operate the two largest fleets from O’Hare according to the FAA’s investigation. The Bureau of Transportation study showed that only 65% of American’s O’Hare flights departed on time and nearly 8% arrived late. United Airlines fared slightly better with 72% of O’Hare flights departing on time and 4.5% arriving late. Across all airports nationwide, 78% of flights departed on time compared with 81.9% in 2003.
The Air Transport Association, an industry group, has not released a statement regarding the increase in delayed flights, but CNN quoted association president David Stempler as saying, “Each airplane is a unit that the Federal Aviation Administration has to deal with, whether it holds 50, 150 or 350 passengers,” Stempler said. “The more of these regional jets and small aircraft that enter the system, the more delays we’ll experience.”
For now, consumers are being lured back into the skies with a new round of fare cuts that are bringing prices to their lowest point in years. Analysts say that the nation’s passenger volume has finally rebounded from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but that the pressure is not on the airlines the way it was in prior years, such as when only 72% of flights arrived on time during 2000.
No one can predict weather or mechanical delays, of course, but some consumers may choose to entirely avoid some flights. One example is a SkyWest Airlines flight from Indianapolis to nearby Chicago that was late 100% of the time during 2004.
Posted under Travel
This post was written by George Bounacos on February 4, 2005
