Cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages lose their allure when passengers are faced with being stuck in planes on runways for over three hours. The good news is that in December there were only three extended runway delays which lasted no more than 12 minutes over the three hour rule. The bad news is that flight cancellation rate increased for the month.
There were 19,692 flights cancelled in December. That months cancellation rate of 3.7 percent compared unfavorably to a 2.8 percent rate for December of 09.
JetBlue and Delta were the only major airlines with cancellation rates which were greater than Decembers 3.7 percent average, with JetBlue running an 8.5 percent rate and Delta a 4.7 percent rate.
Most travel experts readily acknowledge that the Department of Transportations (DOT) new rule which imposes fines for runway delays lasting over three hours is responsible for virtually eliminating such delays. Critics of the rule claim that it is responsible for an increased level of cancellations, particularly during weather alerts and ultimately created greater inconvenience for passengers.
American airlines operated 72 percent of their domestic flights on time in December, which was the same rate as December of 09.
Airlines reduced the incidence of involuntary bumping in the 4th quarter of last year as well as for all of 2010. The quarters bumping rate declined to .79 per 10,000 passengers. vs. 1.13 the prior year. For the full year, the denied boarding rate dropped to 1.09 per 10,000 passengers from 1.23 the year before.
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