Study finds more air delays, lost bags

Study finds more air delays, lost bags
By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

Airline hassles are on the rise: More passengers found themselves bumped,
their flights delayed or their bags lost last year than in 2005, a study
found.

The annual review, released Monday, does not include recent weather-related
flight delays such as the ones that left JetBlue and United Airlines planes
idling for hours on taxiways.

"They just don't get it yet," said Dean Headley, an associate professor at
Wichita State University and co-author of the study.

One upside, researchers said, was that the overall number of airline
complaints has stabilized since hitting a five-year low in 2005.

Industry spokesman David Castelveter blamed the majority of delays on bad
weather. Making matters worse, he said, more planes will be in the air in
coming years and the air traffic control system cannot handle the growth.

"We're going to see more delays and those delays translate to cancellations,
mishandled bags and unhappy passengers," said Castelveter, spokesman for the
Air Transport Association, a trade group for the major U.S. carriers. "It's
not a pretty picture."

Congress needs to provide more money to update the system so it better can
handle the increased traffic and weather problems, Castelveter said.

The Airline Quality Rating report, compiled annually since 1991, looked at
18 airlines and was based on Transportation Department statistics. The
research is sponsored by the Aviation Institute at University of Nebraska at
Omaha and Wichita State University.

Among the findings:

_Southwest had the lowest number of complaints in 2006, 0.18 per 100,000
passengers. United and US Airways tied for the most, 1.36 per 100,000
passenger.

_Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance (93.8 percent) for 2006,
followed by Frontier Airlines (80.7 percent) and Southwest (80.2 percent).
Atlantic Southeast Airlines had the worst on-time performance (66 percent).
On-time was defined as within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.
Canceled and diverted flights counted as late.

The biggest disappointment is mishandled bags, Headley said.

Last year, for every 1,000 passengers, 6.50 bags were lost, stolen or
damaged, compared with 6.06 in 2005. Hawaiian had the best baggage handling
performance; Atlantic Southeast the worst.

The increase in lost bags comes as at least one domestic carrier ‹ Spirit
Airlines ‹ plans a new fee for passengers who check their bags. Come June,
Spirit will charge $5 each for one or two checked bags if the ticket was
booked online and $10 each for passengers who do not book online.

Headley does not think the idea will fly with consumers who long have
expected their ticket prices to included a checked bag or two.

"It will set off an absolute atomic bomb," he said.

On-time performance, the report said, worsened last year, with 75.5 percent
of flights arriving on time, compared with 77.3 percent in 2005.

JetBlue Airways took a hit in February, when passengers on 10 planes spent
from five hours to 10 1/2 hours sitting on runways at John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York because of icy weather and gate
congestion.

It took days for the airline to recover from the February storm and resume
normal operations. It led JetBlue to establish a customer bill of rights
promising vouchers to passengers who experience delays.

Overall, complaints about the airlines last year held steady at about 0.88
complaints for every 100,000 passengers. Nearly half the complaints were
about flight problems or baggage.

The study found an increase in the number of passengers bumped or denied
boarding because of oversold flights ‹ 1.01 denied boardings per 10,000
passengers last year, compared with 0.89 per 10,000 in 2005. JetBlue had the
lowest rate of bumped passengers; Atlantic Southeast the highest.

_

"Earl Evleth" <evleth@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:C2369845.D82D9%evleth@wanadoo.fr...
>
> Study finds more air delays, lost bags
> By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer
>
> Airline hassles are on the rise: More passengers found themselves bumped,
> their flights delayed or their bags lost last year than in 2005, a study
> found.


I understand that you have lived in France for 30+ years...why are you so
obsessed with news about the USA...especially anything negative that you can
dig up? I thought this is where one came to get information about Europe.

On 3/04/07 5:20, in article sKjQh.5283$Kd3.1510@newssvr27.news.,
"Jean O'Boyle" <j.oboyle@removefudged.> wrote:

>> Airline hassles are on the rise: More passengers found themselves bumped,
>> their flights delayed or their bags lost last year than in 2005, a study
>> found.
>
>
> I understand that you have lived in France for 30+ years...why are you so
> obsessed with news about the USA...especially anything negative that you can
> dig up?


Lost bags are a general problem. But the American press covers the subject
better.

"Earl Evleth" <evleth@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:C237FD83.D8569%evleth@wanadoo.fr...
>
> Lost bags are a general problem. But the American press covers the
> subject
> better.

Strange...I don't see mention of any European airlines.

If most of your posts concerning the USA were not of a critical nature, I
might believe that...As for the American press, you have been away for too
long... it dwells and thrives on sensationalism and negativity.
Having been born here and with all my years living inside this country, I
know what to sift through for the truth and very much am aware of the
media's greedy tendency to exaggerate... just to sell papers. Sadly, they
and Hollywood have a lot in common and even more sadly, there are those who
believe everything that they read.