It's time for my annual look at in which airports we're wasting the most time. Although some of the information that follows will be hard to refute, remember the old saying: there are three kinds of lies: Lies, d***ed lies, and statistics.
Due in large part to reduced capacity and lighter route schedules, airports have held the line against excessive delays this past year. You might think it follows that the busiest airport is the most delay-prone airport, but this isn't always the case, as a close (and I mean close) look at the DOT's Air Traffic Consumer Report for the period ending November 2002 shows. Let's go to the numbers to check out arrival and departure success rates by airport, time of day, and passenger loads to see if we can find the nation's best and worst performing airports.
Don't Blame the Airline
Last year, chronically tardy America West all but sank a couple airlines' performance ratings; the airline's Phoenix - BWI flight was late 93.3% of the time, while the airline posted an 18.9% on-time rating for all flights in and out of BWI, earning the Smoking Gun award for the stretch.
This year, America West gets most improved (tho' that ain't saying much), placing eighth out of the top 10 airlines in on-time performance over the past 12 months, highlighted by a #1 ranking in the first three months of 2002. In fact, there were no real dogs this year, only American Eagle and Alaska posted under 80% numbers for the 12 month period, and Alaska gets an exemption; they fly in Alaska.
Delays by Airport: Arrivals
We're doing a little worse this year on arrival times:
National on-time average 11/01-11/02: 83.2 %
Same period last year: 84.8
Let's go to the numbers.
The Top 10 On-Time Airports for 11/01-11/02, Arrivals category:
National average, 11/01-11/02: 88.3%
Last year: 86.0%; we're doing better this year on departures.
The Top 10 On-Time Airports for 11/01-11/02, Departures category:
Most Improved Award goes to Philadelphia, which brought up the rear with Newark last year, and doesn't even show up in either worst-of list this year.
And the winner is: Denver. Only the Mile High City's airport consistently gets passengers in and out of the airport more than 90% of the time.
Delays by Time of Day
Worst time of day: Afternoon rush hour into dinnertime.
We see some airports (Dulles for one) lose the thread midday - maybe the air traffic guy's caffeine jag is waning, or the lunch cart comes by. But whether you're coming or going, the worst time to be in a US airport is the late afternoon into mid-evening, more or less 4-9pm.
Absolute Rock Bottom: Newark afternoon rush hour.
The worst of the lot, Newark (EWR) airdrops from 82 % on-time between 3 and 4 pm to 66.9% between 4 and 5, and doesn't climb back up above 70% until after 8pm. From seven to eight PM, Newark manages a mere 63.7 % ontime arrivals, with departures in the next hour at 67.5%
EWR starts the day at 94%, and ends the day at 86%, but watch out for that dinner break, ouch.
Then there's JFK; they seem to have some trouble getting out of bed, but once they kick in, it's impressive. After hovering in the low 80s to start the morning, JFK delivers 100% from 9-10am. For both arriving and departing flights, JFK posts stellar performances until noon, then bails for lunch hour.
Charlotte is just the opposite; they're great until 9, up in the 90% range, then drop under 80% for an hour at nine am for both arrivals and departures, then climb right back out again up into the high 80 and 90 % on-time range.
Portland, Oregon starts off okay, then just drifts off, each hour a little worse than the rest. SeaTac shows a similar fade; must be the morning coffee countered by the dreary weather in the PNW, who knows.
Busiest Airports
The busiest airports in America are the busiest airports in the world, and each of these serves as a primary or secondary hub for at least one airline; no surprises here. One odd fact does reveal itself: every airline has more departures than arrivals.
The top five above lead in the number of takeoffs and landings worldwide; as regards passengers, Heathrow and Tokyo make the grade. Here's a look at the total passengers transported for the period January- September 2002:
From Airports Council International
Predictions for 2003
Hard economic times don't seem to have thrashed arrival and departure times too badly, and fewer planes on the tarmac and in holding patterns would seem to bode well for on-time performance, if not bottom line performance. However, with two major airlines operating under Chapter 11 protection promising staff cutbacks, labor woes, plane groundings, and more, the current status quo is anything but. If United and USAirways reorganize without too much disruption, these should be good times for on-time flights.
Next week: How Safe Is Your Airport?
To discuss this and other Traveler's Ed articles, visit the Traveler's Ed Message Board!
Go Anyway,
Ed Hewitt
TravelersEd@aol.com
Features Editor
The Independent Traveler
Due in large part to reduced capacity and lighter route schedules, airports have held the line against excessive delays this past year. You might think it follows that the busiest airport is the most delay-prone airport, but this isn't always the case, as a close (and I mean close) look at the DOT's Air Traffic Consumer Report for the period ending November 2002 shows. Let's go to the numbers to check out arrival and departure success rates by airport, time of day, and passenger loads to see if we can find the nation's best and worst performing airports.
Don't Blame the Airline
Last year, chronically tardy America West all but sank a couple airlines' performance ratings; the airline's Phoenix - BWI flight was late 93.3% of the time, while the airline posted an 18.9% on-time rating for all flights in and out of BWI, earning the Smoking Gun award for the stretch.
This year, America West gets most improved (tho' that ain't saying much), placing eighth out of the top 10 airlines in on-time performance over the past 12 months, highlighted by a #1 ranking in the first three months of 2002. In fact, there were no real dogs this year, only American Eagle and Alaska posted under 80% numbers for the 12 month period, and Alaska gets an exemption; they fly in Alaska.
Delays by Airport: Arrivals
We're doing a little worse this year on arrival times:
National on-time average 11/01-11/02: 83.2 %
Same period last year: 84.8
Let's go to the numbers.
The Top 10 On-Time Airports for 11/01-11/02, Arrivals category:
- Denver: 91.5% on-time
- Pittsburgh: 89.9%
- Dallas-Fort Worth: 89.5%
- St. Louis: 89.5%
- Charlotte: 89.0%
- Washington Dulles: 88.0%
- Washington Reagan National: 87.5%
- Detroit: 87.5%
- Minneapolis: 87.5%
- Houston: 87.4%
- LaGuardia: 78.4%
- Newark: 79.2%
- Atlanta: 81.0%
- Miami: 81.9%
- Fort Lauderdale: 82%
- Las Vegas: 82.3%
- Chicago O'Hare: 82.2%
- SeaTac: 82.3%
- JFK: 82.5%
- LAX: 83.0%
National average, 11/01-11/02: 88.3%
Last year: 86.0%; we're doing better this year on departures.
The Top 10 On-Time Airports for 11/01-11/02, Departures category:
- Denver: 93%
- Pittsburgh: 92.7%
- St. Louis: 92.6%
- Houston: 92.2%
- Washington Dulles: 92.1%
- Washington Reagan National: 91.4%
- Salt Lake City: 91.2%
- Orlando: 90.9%
- Minneapolis: 90.7%
- Charlotte: 90.7%
- Boston: 86.9%
- BWI: 85.0%
- Fort Lauderdale: 87.1%
- JFK: 86.8%
- Las Vegas: 84.4%
- LaGuardia: 86.6%
- Chicago Midway: 81.4%
- Chicago O'Hare: 85.7%
- Phoenix: 84.6%
- San Diego: 86.2%
- SeaTac: 86.1%
Most Improved Award goes to Philadelphia, which brought up the rear with Newark last year, and doesn't even show up in either worst-of list this year.
And the winner is: Denver. Only the Mile High City's airport consistently gets passengers in and out of the airport more than 90% of the time.
Delays by Time of Day
Worst time of day: Afternoon rush hour into dinnertime.
We see some airports (Dulles for one) lose the thread midday - maybe the air traffic guy's caffeine jag is waning, or the lunch cart comes by. But whether you're coming or going, the worst time to be in a US airport is the late afternoon into mid-evening, more or less 4-9pm.
Absolute Rock Bottom: Newark afternoon rush hour.
The worst of the lot, Newark (EWR) airdrops from 82 % on-time between 3 and 4 pm to 66.9% between 4 and 5, and doesn't climb back up above 70% until after 8pm. From seven to eight PM, Newark manages a mere 63.7 % ontime arrivals, with departures in the next hour at 67.5%
EWR starts the day at 94%, and ends the day at 86%, but watch out for that dinner break, ouch.
Then there's JFK; they seem to have some trouble getting out of bed, but once they kick in, it's impressive. After hovering in the low 80s to start the morning, JFK delivers 100% from 9-10am. For both arriving and departing flights, JFK posts stellar performances until noon, then bails for lunch hour.
Charlotte is just the opposite; they're great until 9, up in the 90% range, then drop under 80% for an hour at nine am for both arrivals and departures, then climb right back out again up into the high 80 and 90 % on-time range.
Portland, Oregon starts off okay, then just drifts off, each hour a little worse than the rest. SeaTac shows a similar fade; must be the morning coffee countered by the dreary weather in the PNW, who knows.
Busiest Airports
The busiest airports in America are the busiest airports in the world, and each of these serves as a primary or secondary hub for at least one airline; no surprises here. One odd fact does reveal itself: every airline has more departures than arrivals.
| Airport | Arrivals | Departures |
| Chicago | 26,427 | 26,439 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | 22,506 | 22,510 |
| Atlanta | 18,279 | 18,291 |
| LAX | 14,631 | 14,635 |
| Phoenix | 14,141 | 14,143 |
| Minneapolis | 11,492 | 11,500 |
| Detroit | 11,279 | 11,285 |
| Las Vegas | 10,647 | 10,652 |
The top five above lead in the number of takeoffs and landings worldwide; as regards passengers, Heathrow and Tokyo make the grade. Here's a look at the total passengers transported for the period January- September 2002:
| 1 | ATLANTA, GA (ATL) | 57 230 553 |
| 2 | CHICAGO, IL (ORD) | 49 552 659 |
| 3 | LONDON, GB (LHR) | 47 889 159 |
| 4 | TOKYO, JP (HND) | 45 348 504 |
| 5 | LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX) | 42 506 606 |
| 6 | DALLAS/FT WORTH AIRPORT, TX (DFW) | 39 750 225 |
| 7 | FRANKFURT, DE (FRA) | 36 969 798 |
| 8 | PARIS, FR (CDG) | 36 852 734 |
| 9 | AMSTERDAM, NL (AMS) | 31 246 408 |
| 10 | DENVER, CO (DEN) | 27 136 849 |
| 11 | PHOENIX, AZ (PHX) | 26 492 099 |
| 12 | LAS VEGAS, NV (LAS) | 26 466 668 |
| 13 | MADRID, ES (MAD) | 25 766 555 |
| 14 | HOUSTON, TX (IAH) | 25 703 372 |
| 15 | HONG KONG, CN (HKG) | 25 226 000 |
| 16 | MINNEAPOLIS /ST PAUL, MN (MSP) | 24 861 019 |
| 17 | DETROIT, MI (DTW) | 24 384 905 |
| 18 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA (SFO) | 24 003 466 |
| 19 | BANGKOK, TH (BKK) | 23 799 233 |
| 20 | LONDON, GB (LGW) | 23 249 661 |
| 21 | MIAMI, FL (MIA) | 22 683 339 |
| 22 | NEWARK, NJ (EWR) | 21 828 042 |
| 23 | SINGAPORE, SG (SIN) | 21 479 954 |
| 24 | TOKYO, JP (NRT) | 21 414 673 |
| 25 | NEW YORK, NY (JFK) | 21 398 752 |
| 26 | SEATTLE/TACOMA, WA (SEA) | 20 461 637 |
| 27 | BEIJING, CN (PEK) | 20 432 018 |
| 28 | ORLANDO, FL (MCO) | 20 144 776 |
| 29 | TORONTO, OT, CA (YYZ) | 19 871 166 |
| 30 | ST LOUIS, MO (STL) | 19 596 164 |
From Airports Council International
Predictions for 2003
Hard economic times don't seem to have thrashed arrival and departure times too badly, and fewer planes on the tarmac and in holding patterns would seem to bode well for on-time performance, if not bottom line performance. However, with two major airlines operating under Chapter 11 protection promising staff cutbacks, labor woes, plane groundings, and more, the current status quo is anything but. If United and USAirways reorganize without too much disruption, these should be good times for on-time flights.
Next week: How Safe Is Your Airport?
To discuss this and other Traveler's Ed articles, visit the Traveler's Ed Message Board!
Go Anyway,
Ed Hewitt
TravelersEd@aol.com
Features Editor
The Independent Traveler