Tales of America's Sorriest Airline

14 hours to get get from Northwest Florida to Washington. Driving? No. Mostly just being victimized by ASA.

From the Wall Street Journal...

THE MIDDLE SEAT By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Tallying Summer Travel Woes

DOT Says Delays
Worsened in June;
July Not as Bad
August 7, 2007; Page D4

The first half of 2007 has been the worst for air travel delays since the Department of Transportation started keeping detailed statistics 13 years ago, the government said yesterday.

And preliminary numbers show July won't do much to reverse travel woes, either.

June 2007 was the second-worst June on record for flight delays, with only 68.1% of flights arriving on time as a result of more jets in the sky and particularly bad weather at key airport hubs like Dallas-Fort Worth International. Last year in June, 72.8% of flights arrived on-time. Only June 2000 was worse than this year at 66.3% on-time, when surging travel demand and airline labor battles clogged air transportation.

....

Yesterday, the DOT delivered a fuller accounting of travel misery this summer with its June statistics. Mishandled baggage reports shot up 36% in June -- 451,260 bags either lost, late or misrouted. More passengers were involuntarily bumped from flights and the number of complaints filed by customers to the DOT increased a whopping 54% in June compared with last year.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a regional feeder for Delta Air Lines Inc., had the worst on-time performance of any U.S. airline in June, according to the DOT. Nearly half of all ASA flights arrived late, which the DOT defines as reaching the gate 15 minutes or more past scheduled arrival time.

Among major airlines, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, hard-hit by huge rains on Dallas, had the worst on-time performance. Southwest Airlines Co. was the best among majors.

The DOT won't release July delay numbers for another month, but a tally from FlightStats.com, a flight-tracking service used by airlines, airports and consumers, shows that last month was better for airline travelers than June -- but still worse than last year.

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