Frequent fliers are quick to tell tales of how trips that started off promising with the purchase of cheap airplane tickets or discount travel packages ended up being nightmares because they either got stuck on a runway for over three hours before departing or their flights were canceled. October was the first month since the Department of Transportation (DOT) has been keeping records that the airlines had zero flights delayed by three or more hours.
Overall for the month 18 major and regional airlines scheduled 545,519 domestic flights, with just shy of 84 percent of them arriving within 15 minutes of schedule. Less than 1 percent of them were canceled. Octobers cancellation rate was down slightly from a year ago. Looking at major airlines flying out of major airports, the cancellation rate was even lower.
When the DOT rule which imposes costly penalties for extended runway delays went into effect in April the airlines warned that flight cancelations would increase dramatically. To date, that has not been the case.
In the 12 months prior to the DOTs new runway rule, the monthly total of flights sitting on runways for over three hours fluctuated between four and 268. In the six months after, extended delays have been between four and zero.
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