According to the latest Air Travel Consumer Report, US on-time arrival rates climbed to 74.3% in June, compared to 72.6% in May 2024 and 71.3% in June 2023. Hawaiian Airlines was ranked as the country’s most on-time airline in June, while Frontier Airlines was the lowest performer, with just 61.3% of flights arriving on time.
The June ATCR
Last Friday, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) released its Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR), compiled for June and the first six months of 2024. The ATCR reports data for on-time performance, mishandled baggage, mishandled wheelchairs and scooters, and second-quarter oversales.
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The report shows that in June, 643,484 domestic flights were operated, 7.12% more than in June 2023 and 0.52% month-over-month from the 640,137 flights operated in May 2024. In June, the ten marketing network carriers reported 651,799 scheduled flights, of which 8,315 (1.3%) were canceled, compared to 2.1% in June 2023 and 1.4% in May 2024.
The best-performing airline was Southwest Airlines, which canceled just 0.3% of its flights in June, followed by Alaska Airlines Network (0.6%) and Hawaiian Airlines (0.7%). At the other end of the scale, the airlines with the most cancellations were Frontier Airlines (3.5%), Spirit Airlines (2.6%) and JetBlue Airways (2.5%).
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DOT expects that every scheduled flight will be operated, but when they are canceled, it expects airlines to provide consumers the services promised when a flight is canceled or delayed because of an airline issue. After pushing the issue for more than two years, DOT said that the ten largest US airlines now guarantee meals and free rebooking on the same airline and nine guarantee hotel rooms.
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On-time arrivals increased to 74.3% in June, compared to 71.3 year-on-year and 72.6 month-on-month, while the year-to-date on-time arrival is a solid 76.9%. The most punctual carriers were Hawaiian Airlines (83.6%), Delta Air Lines Network (78.6%) and Alaska Airlines Network (76.8%). The least punctual were Frontier Airlines (61.3%), JetBlue Airways (69.7%) and Spirit Airlines (70.7%), the same three airlines that bottomed out on the cancelation rates for June.
Customer Complaints
DOT categorizes customer complaints into four categories: Tarmac Delays, Mishandled Baggage, Mishandled Wheelchairs and Scooters and Bumping/Oversales. In June this year, marketing carriers handled 44.6 million bags and reported a mishandled rate of 0.58%, the same as in May 2024 and an improvement on the 0.70% mishandled in June 2023. For the first half of this year, 0.56% of bags were mishandled, compared to 0.61% in 2023.
Photo: Denver International Airport
The number of wheelchairs and scooters traveling on aircraft continues to rise. In June, the reporting marketing carriers checked 82,778 and mishandled 1,075 for a mishandled rate of 1.30%. This is where percentages are meaningless, as 1.3% sounds great, but that meant 1,075 passengers were inconvenienced to varying degrees when an airline mishandled their vital mobility equipment. Airlines can and must do better in this regard.
DOT agrees and has proposed a rulemaking that would make it an automatic violation of the department’s Air Carrier Access Act regulations for airlines to mishandle a passenger’s wheelchair. If adopted, this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would also enhance training requirements for airline personnel who handle wheelchairs and provide hands-on transfer assistance to passengers.
In June, airlines reported 70 tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights, compared to 38 reported in May 2024. They also reported six tarmac delays of more than four hours on an international flight in June, compared to four delays of more than four hours in May 2024.
Between April and June (2Q), the 10 US reporting marketing carriers reported an involuntarily denied boarding, or bumping, rate of 0.33 per 10,000 passengers, lower than the 0.36 per 10,000 passengers in 2Q 2023. For the year-to-date, the airlines reported bumping rates of 0.30%, lower than the 0.33% in the same period last year.