Airlines bumping fewer fliers than ever
Airlines bumping fewer fliers than ever:- Airlines bumped the fewest passengers in decades during the first half of the year, the Transportation Department announced Tuesday.
Airlines involuntarily denied boarding to 0.52 passengers out of every 10,000 from January through June, according to the department’s monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. The rate reflects 17,330 passengers involuntarily denied boarding out of 332,415,301.
That rate was lower than the previous record of 0.62 passengers per 10,000 that was set in the first half of 2016. It’s also the lowest since the department began keeping track in 1995, according to the report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The improvement comes amid a worldwide firestorm of publicity about bumped passengers that began in April, when United Airlines had a passenger dragged off a full flight in Chicago.
United apologized repeatedly for the incident and reached a settlement with the passenger, David Dao.
Congress held hearings about the incident and threatened legislation. And airlines began offering more incentives for passengers on overbooked flights to voluntarily postpone their travel.
A dozen airlines report bumping quarterly. The rate for April, May and June was 0.44 passengers out of 10,000, according to the report. The previous quarterly record low was 0.5 for July, August and September in 2002.
The monthly report also covered a mixed record for mishandled bags, and a worse record for punctuality and cancellations in June.
Airlines reported mishandling 2.54 bags for every 1,000 passengers during the first six months of the year, which was lower than 2.65 for the same period a year earlier.
The June rate of 2.65 mishandled bags was worse than 2.32 in May, but better than 2.82 for the same month a year earlier.
Airlines were less punctual in June, with 76.2% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of their schedules. That was down from 79.1% in May and 78% in June 2016.
The most punctual were Hawaiian, Alaska and Delta airlines. JetBlue, Virgin America and Spirit had the lowest on-time arrival rates.
Cancellations averaged 1.1% of domestic flights in June, which was more than the 0.8% rate in May and the 1% rate for the same month a year earlier.
The most cancellations were at Spirit, JetBlue and ExpressJet, a regional airline that flies feeder flights for bigger “mainline” carriers. Delta, Hawaiian and Frontier had the lowest cancellation rates.
The department is investigating six tarmac delays of at least three hours for domestic flights and two for delays of at least four hours for international flights, which can bring fines against an airline.
Airlines reported the death of one animal and injuries to two others during June. The three incidents compared to one report in May and six in June 2016.
The department received 1,605 complaints about airline service during June, which represented a 9.8% decline from May, but 7.7% more than June 2016. The 9,026 complaints during the first six months of the year was up 7.8% from the 8,375 during the same period a year earlier.
Source:- https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2017/08/08/dot-airlines-set-record-bumping-fewest-passengers-decades-during-first-half-2017/549077001/
