BTS Posts Annual On-Time Data on Website

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics released tables in February providing an indepth look at flight delays in 2002.

All 32 of the nations major airports had better on-time performance for arriving flights in 2002 than in 2001. Denver International Airport had the lowest percentage of late arriving flights and Atlanta Hartsfield Airport had the highest percentage of late arriving flights during 2002.

A ranking of all months since 1995 showed that January 1996 was the worst month for flight delays and September 2002 was the best.

For more information, check http://www.bts.gov/oai/on_time_2002/.

Beginning in June, the major air carriers that file monthly on-time reports with BTS will be required to collect and report the causes of airline delays and cancellations.

The rule creates four broad categories for reporting the causes of cancellations:

• Air Carrier—due to circumstances that were within the control of the air carrier, such as lack of flight crew or maintenance.
• Extreme Weather.
• National Aviation System (NAS)—cancellations caused by a broad set of conditions such as nonextreme weather, airport operations, heavy traffic volume, or air traffic control.
• Security—cancellations resulting from malfunctioning screening or other security equipment or a breech of security that causes the evacuation of the airport or individual concourses, or the need to rescreen passengers.

The rule creates the same four broad categories for the causes of delays, along with an additional category. They are:

• Air carrier
• Extreme weather
• NAS
• Security
• Late-arriving aircraft—a late incoming aircraft from the previous flight.