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Jul 7, 2008 2:43 pm US/Central
American Airlines Has Most Delayed Flights In USA
NEW YORK (AP / CBS 11 NEWS) ―
Domestic airlines improved their on-time arrival rates in May, although more than one in five flights still failed to get passengers to their destination as scheduled, according to
government data released Monday.
Even though the industry as a whole improved, Fort Worth's American Airlines got worse. American, which is the biggest airline in the world, had the worst on-time percentage in the country. Just 67% of American's flights arrived on time in May.
That's down 2% from last year.
American was followed by UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the second-largest
carrier, which reported 72.4 percent of on-time arrivals, and
Continental Airlines Inc., with 75.4 percent.
A total of 21 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived at least 15 minutes late, were canceled or diverted in May, according to the Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
That is down from more than 22 percent of late flights in the same month last year and in April of this year. The previous month's figure was higher in part because American was forced to ground thousands of flights amid tighter government scrutiny of maintenance issues.
Dallas' Southwest Airlines also had a notable entry in the data: its flight 2709, from Houston to San Diego, was late 100% of the time in May.
Weather was by far the biggest cause of late flights in May, accounting for just over 44 percent of all delays. Only about 39 percent of flights were late because of weather a year earlier.
U.S. carriers also improved their baggage handling in May. About 4.6 passengers out of every 1,000 reported a mishandled bag during the month, compared with nearly 6 per 1,000 a year earlier and 5 per 1,000 in April.
Reported passenger complaints fell to 885, compared with 930 a year earlier and 1,113 in April.
The U.S. airline industry is straining under record-high fuel prices, which have prompted many carriers to raise fares, announce sweeping flight cutbacks and begin charging for amenities such as checked bags and extra legroom.
Oil prices fell sharply Monday but nonetheless remain within range of last week's all-time highs. Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $4.54 to $140.75 by midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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