Travel Karma

Yeah, I've noticed:

The airline industry's dismal on-time performance in 2007 continued in August with nearly 30 percent of flights delayed.

The most recent government data, which also showed a surge in fliers' complaints, was released less than a week after President Bush promised to help fix the problem.

Forcing carriers to shrink their flight schedules or to pay more to fly during peak travel periods are some of the steps the government is considering.

The nation's 20 largest carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 71.7 percent in August, down from 75.8 percent a year ago, the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Wednesday. The on-time rate was 69.8 percent in July and 68.1 percent in June.

Through August, more than 25 percent of flights have arrived late — the industry's worst on-time performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995.

The airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration blame the delays on outdated air traffic control technology, bad weather and increasing passenger traffic. Analysts say commercial airlines' use of smaller planes is partly to blame for increased congestion in the skies and on runways, as is an increase in general aviation aircraft used by corporate travelers.

Whatever the cause of the worsening delays, travelers have noticed.

Having been in DCA a good bit over the last several weeks, I can attest that delays do seem to be worse without needing any hard data.  I've heard lots of bad news coming over the PA as I've sat around in the terminal.  However, my flights have been unusually smooth and even been arriving early (which causes problems because our gate isn't ready, but that's another story).

And now I have jinxed myself, so the next post you see about air travel will involve me bitching about how Bernie Sanders stole my seat on the last flight to BTV after being delayed 7 hours while TSA gave me a full body cavity search.

ntodd