As much as people enjoy taking advantage of cheap traveloptions, such as cheapairplane tickets, and cheap vacation packages, somepassengers have found reason to complain in the past.
A recent report from U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)released shows that the airlines are improving their on-time performance at thesame time that airline customer complaints are declining.
The airlines improved their on-time performance inSeptember to 83.8 percent of domestic flights vs. 83.3 percent the prioryear. Septembers performance was betterthan July and August, when summer travelers filled planes and about 25 percentof flights arrived late.
Hawaiian Airlines came in first, with 95 percent of itsflights arriving within 14 minutes of schedule. Of the 16 reporting airlines, Southwest Airlines turned in the worstperformance, with only 76 percent of its flights arriving on time.
A little less than 1 percent of flights were canceled inSeptember, a slight increase from a year earlier.
Three September flights appear to have violated federalrules regarding excessive runway delays. Two were operated by United Airlines and one by Spirit Airlines.
DOT fined United $1.1 million in October for leavingpassengers on 13 planes, with no opportunity to exit, during a long weatherdelay in Chicago in July 2012. To date,this is the largest fine recorded for extended runway delays.
Passengers are recording fewer airline complaints. Through September of this year complaintsfiled with DOT are 14 percent less than in 2012.
During the first nine months of the year the rate bags werelost, damaged, or delayed rose slightly from the prior year. Virgin America turned in the best handlingrate with American Eagle performing worst.
In the third quarter airlines involuntarily bumped a littlemore than 11,700 passengers, a decrease of 24 percent from the same period lastyear. Approximately 109,000 passengersvoluntarily gave up their seats. Toinduce passengers to voluntarily leave oversold planes, airlines often offertravel vouchers.
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