ON-TIME, SOME TIMES--

US Airlines Post Miserable Records

American, the world’s largest airline, came in as the third worst among the major industry players, with its flights arriving on-time only 63.4 per cent of the time in July 2007, the latest information available.

The entire industry average for July for on-time arrivals was a dismal 69.8 per cent.

The top on-line arrival percentages were posted by Hawaiian and Aloha airlines with figures above 90 per cent. However, those figures are skewed by those airlines operating mostly shorter flights in marvelous Hawaiian weather conditions.

Pinnacle Airlines was behind those two “leaders” with a figure of 78.9 per cent of on-time arrivals giving them the de facto first place for the month.

Reasons for delayed arrivals include; those caused by the carriers themselves, weather, air traffic control, security issues, and other late arriving flights.

Other big carriers such as; United, Northwest, Continental, US Airways and Delta ranged between 65 and 70 percent for on-time arrivals.

For a handy table listing the rankings of all the major players check here: http://aviation.beloblog.com/archives/2007/09/post_9.html You should be able to click this active link. If not, highlight it and paste it into your favorite search engine.

The airlines have largely hovered in this area of on-time arrival percentages for the last 10 years. They managed to squeak just above an 80 percent on-time arrival average in 2002 and 2003.

So, if you hope to save yourself lots of aggravation with airline travel, you will 1) ship your luggage ahead, and 2) arrange your itinerary with lots of time between connecting flights plus allowing an unscheduled day or two at each end of your journey to absorb any of these pesky, delay fiascos.

Or, check the stage coach schedules.