Major Airlines Rated Worst
Probe Shows Partner Flights Often Late and Lose Bags
Wall Street Journal points out that small jets serving as regional carriers for top US airlines have poor on-time records, cancel a lot, mishandle baggage.
Worst airlines in 2007? Seniors and other leisure flyers on the lookout for bad performance need to look no farther than American, Delta, Continental and Northwest for delays and mishandled luggage.
Scott McCartney, the Wall Street Journal "Middle Seat" columnist, is a great sleuth who refuses to be hoodwinked by major air carriers. His analysis of February statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals that early in 2007 the smaller regional air carriers affiliated with American (American Eagle), Delta (Atlantic Southeast, Comair), Continental (ExpressJet) and Northwest (Pinnacle) are not added in with the totals for their Big Daddies.
Thus, a first glance at the February statistics suggest that nearly 77 percent of Delta Air Line flights arrived on time. But when McCartney dug a little deeper, he found that regional jets and turboprops operated by Delta's partner Comair were on time only 53.5 percent of the time. On another Delta partner, Atlantic Southeast, the February on-time arrival percentage was 60.5 percent. Add those percentages to Delta and you get 66.5 percent, below the national average.
Why is this important? Because more "Delta" and "Continental" flights are actually on their regional partners than on their own aircraft.
With Continental, things are not quite as awful. Its partner ExpressJet showed an on-time percentage of 70.7, lower than the main carrier's 73.7 percent. As for American, both it and American Eagle, its partner, showed mediocre on-time arrivals. American: 64.2 percent, American Eagle 62.3 percent.
How about Northwest? Abysmal. The main carrier's flights had a 58.8 percent on-time record. Its partner, Pinnacle, shows 64.2 percent. Combine them and you get a 60.8 percent on time record. A better way of looking at that number is to observe that about 40 percent of its flights were late.
Did someone mislay your luggage in February? American -- the major carrier -- mishandled 8.1 percent of bags. But American Eagle baggage lost rate was 16.3 percent. The story is similar on Delta: the main carrier's planes mishandled 8.2 percent of bags but Atlantic Southeast mislaid 11 percent and Comair lost 16 percent of the bags.
Before booking a flight, travelers go to www.flightstats.com and check its on-time record. You also can check many of the details on airline performance yourself by going to the U.S. Department of Transportation consumer report. Also see my previous "worst airlines" story and this luxury travel airline satisfaction article by Jennifer Miner.
Wondering what the absolute single worst flight is in terms of delays? US Airways flight 2188 from Washington Reagan National to New York LaGuardia was late 100 percent of the time as of March 2007, according to the DOT.
