An article published on January 22, 2008 in Wall Street Journal reported that analysis of extreme-delay data from last year shows clear patterns: Certain airlines and certain airports were more prone than others to long delays before takeoff and very late arrivals. Even certain flights had repeated trouble with very long delays.
Airlines say some flights simply end up at the end of long lines more often than others because they try to depart at the airport's busiest time. But it can be more than just unfortunate timing. Airline operations managers can juggle departures because of factors like which crews may run out of duty time first, which planes are more urgently needed for their next scheduled flight, which flights have the most high-dollar business travelers who they least want to be canceled, and which flights are headed to destinations with late-night curfews -- where airlines can be fined for flights arriving after a certain hour.
Another factor that affects extremely long sitting: Airlines are less likely to cancel flights that move on to other hubs in their systems rather than turn around and go back to the same airport they just left. If a plane is going out and back to the same hub, canceling the trip just impacts those two flights. But if the aircraft is scheduled to move on to numerous cities, canceling that flight could disrupt many more customers. As a result, aircraft that aren't scheduled for "turns" are more likely to sit and wait long periods before the flight gets canceled.
Extreme delays are rare, but the problem escalated dramatically last year, becoming the focus of Congressional hearings and legislation. The number of flights with taxi-out times of more than three hours totaled 1,598 for the first 11 months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (The agency hasn't released December data yet.) That's a 23.4% increase over the entire year of 2006, and December 2007 clearly added to the total for 2007 with widespread delays over the holiday season.
Airlines with highest percentage in 2007 of flights delayed 45 minutes or more: Atlantic Southeast: 15.1%, JetBlue: 13.8%, American: 13.6%.
Airlines with the lowest percentage of flights delayed 45 minutes or more: Hawaiian: 1.69%, Frontier: 6.10%, Southwest: 6.13%.
Highest average length of delays: JetBlue: 67 minutes, Mesa: 64 minutes, ExpressJet: 64 minutes, Atlantic Southeast: 62 minutes, American: 61 minutes
Lowest average delay: Frontier: 43 minutes, Southwest: 48 minutes, Northwest: 49 minutes, US Airways: 49 minutes, Hawaiian: 50 minutes.
Source: McCartney, Scott, “Extreme Delays: Which Flights Are,” Wall Street Journal, January 22,2008.