US airline performance continues to plummet
US airline performance measured by delays, mishandled baggage and customer complaints worsened last year, according to the US Department of Transportation (DOT).
Its Air Travel Consumer Report found consumer complaints among the 20 reporting airlines rose more than 17% over the previous year
Reports of mishandled baggage rose 6% over 2005. And US carriers had an on-time arrival rate of 77.4%, which was down from 78.1% in 2005.
“As usual, Hawaiian Airlines led the way with a sunny 94.2% on-time arrival rate,” reported ATW Daily News.
Perhaps ironically, the second best performing airline for on-time arrivals, Independence, is now defunct. The carrier was on-time almost 64% of the time, according to DOT.
Flights were ruled on time when they arrived no more than 15 minutes after the scheduled times.
The DOT report also showed that US airlines boarded 642 passengers last year, or 23 million more than the previous year.
There were 8,735 complaints reported by the DOT last year. These ranged from flight cancellations or delays, incomplete or incorrect information about fares, discrimination, customer service and lost or misplaced baggage.
In one area, carriers did show improvement.
US airlines cancelled just 1.9% of scheduled domestic flights last December compared to a year ago when the rate was 2.8%.
Hawaiian could be particularly proud in this area; they only cancelled 0.2% of flights.
Report by David Wilkening
David
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Global tourism exceeds 1.5 billion travelers announces UN-Tourism
Qatar Airways offers reduced timetable to over 60 destinations
WTTC global tourism reached record economic impact of 11 trillion in 2025
Marginal increase for New York City tourism in 2025
Hands In, UATP join forces for airline multi-card payments