Ok just checking. I was gonna call BS on bragging about on-time performance if you weren't ACARS. Thx.
P.S. Yes, I know, I know....you can still creatively modify your Out time with ACARS, it's just not as easy.
SLC: It's where the planes fly on time
Airport tops among 32 in the U.S. for on-time arrivals, departures
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/06/2008 11:19:45 AM MDT
While flight delays were rampant at other big airports during the first half of 2008, the vast majority of planes landing at and departing from Salt Lake City International Airport were on schedule, federal figures show.
Of the 32 busiest U.S. airports, Salt Lake City had the best on-time arrival and departure records in June and in the first six months of the year, according to a Department of Transportation report.
Slightly more than 83 percent of all arriving commercial flights got to Salt Lake City on time in June, and 80.9 percent were on schedule during the first half of the year, the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Tuesday.
On the other hand, New York's LaGuardia had the month's worst on-time arrival records. Just 51.2 percent of June flights landed within 15 minutes of their planned arrivals, and 57.5 percent arrived on schedule in the January-through-June period.
Salt Lake City also possessed the best departure performances. In June, 86.7 percent of all flights leaving the airport took off on schedule, while 85.2 percent lifted off on time during the first half of the year. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was at the bottom of the government's list, with only 59.1 percent of its flights taking off when they were supposed to in June. Over the six-month period, 62.5 percent departed on time.
airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said good weather is usually why Utah's biggest airfield doesn't experience massive arrival and departure delays.
"We've been fortunate in this time frame not to have had thunderstorms and other weather phenomena that other airports have dealt with across the nation," Gann said.
Mike Boyd, an airline industry consultant in Evergreen, Colo., said the predominant airlines at Salt Lake's airport - Delta Air Lines and its SkyWest Airlines regional partner, as well as Southwest Airlines - should get most of the credit.
"It's a good airport. But there's nothing particular to the airport itself that would be responsible for having a better on-time performance. It's the airlines," Boyd said.
Together, Delta and SkyWest carry 71 percent of the passengers using the Salt Lake airport. In June, 75.4 percent of Delta's planes landed on schedule and 91 percent of SkyWest's flights arrived on time. Low-cost carrier Southwest, with 14 percent of the passenger market in Salt Lake City, brought in 78.5 percent of its planes on schedule.
Nationally, the nation's airlines were on time more often in June compared with a year ago, and customers filed fewer complaints about their baggage.
The Transportation Department's statistics bureau said 1.8 percent of flights were canceled in June, down from 2.7 percent in June 2007 but higher than the 1 percent cancellation rate in May.
The 19 carriers reporting performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 70.8 percent in June, higher than June 2007's 68.1 percent but down from 79 percent in May of this year.
Weather was a big culprit, with big hub airports such as Dallas-Fort Worth International prone to thunderstorms. Salt Lake City, by contrast, received almost no rain during June.
American Airlines, the nation's biggest carrier, had the worst on-time rate, at 58.8 percent. United Airlines was next at 59.3 percent.
Hawaiian Airlines had the best arrival rate by a wide margin, at 92.2 percent. Delta's systemwide rate was 72.9 percent, ranking it No. 10 among the top 19 carriers.
The airlines also got better at handling baggage. There were 5.15 reports of mishandled luggage for every 1,000 passengers in June, which was an improvement over the year-earlier figure of 7.94 complaints per 1,000 customers.
Delta's 4.66 rate was almost half of what it was a year earlier, when the government logged 8.08 complaints per 1,000 customers.
SkyWest also improved. In June, there were 6.41 complaints about baggage per 1,000 customers. A year ago, the rate was 10.96 complaints.
---
* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story
Punctual
On-time arrival rates for the top five U.S. airports in the first half of 2008:
*
1. Salt Lake City: 80.9%
*
2. Phoenix: 79%
*
3. Baltimore: 78.6%
*
4. Chicago-Midway: 77.3%
*
5. Charlotte, N.C.: 76.9%
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Arrivals
Worst on-time arrival rates in the first half of 2008:
*
28. Miami: 68.3%
*
29. San Francisco: 65.3%
*
30. Chicago-O'Hare: 61.2%
*
31. Newark: 60.4%
*
32. New York-LaGuardia: 57.5%
Departures
On-time departure rates for the top and bottom five U.S. airports in the first half of 2008:
*
1. Salt Lake City: 85.2%
*
2. Portland, Ore.: 83%
*
3. Washington-Ronald Reagan: 83.1%
*
4. Phoenix: 79.9%
*
5. Tampa, Fla.: 79.7%
*
28. New York-LaGuardia: 71.6%
*
29. Miami: 69.9%
*
30. Dallas-Fort Worth: 69.4%
*
31. Newark, N.J.: 67.2%
*
32. Chicago-O'Hare: 62.5%
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics
