Lost Bags, Bumped Passengers Down in 2011, But Complaints About Airlines Up ... - Wall Street Journal (blog)

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Lost Bags, Bumped Passengers Down in 2011, But Complaints About Airlines Up ... - Wall Street Journal (blog)

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By Scott McCartney

Delays and cancellations on domestic U.S. airlines flights increased slightly last year compared to 2010, but lost baggage and bumped passengers improved, according to the Department of Transportation. And yet complaints about U.S. and foreign airline service jumped higher in 2011.

Airlines got 79.6% of their domestic trips to the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled time in 2011, compared to 79.8% in 2010, according to DOT. The number of canceled flights increased to 115,978, or 1.9% of all scheduled flights, from 113,255, or 1.8% of scheduled flights, in 2010.

As shown in the Middle Seat scorecard in January, Alaska and Delta were best among major carriers in on-time arrivals; jetBlue Airways and American Airlines were at the bottom of the heap for major carriers.

For the most part, the industry benefited last year from relatively agreeable weather for flying plus less congestion in the skies and at airports as a result of cuts in flight schedules driven by the weak economy and high oil prices. The number of domestic flights counted by DOT fell nearly 6% to 6.1 million from 6.5 million in 2010. In 2007, airlines flew 7.5 million domestic trips.

Baggage handling improved for the industry. Lower volume of bags as a result of baggage fees has helped airlines reduce the frequency of lost luggage. In 2011, there were 3.4 incidents of mishandled luggage for every 1,000 passengers, compared to 2010’s rate of 3.5 per 1,000, DOT said. In raw numbers, that’s 1.9 million mishandled bags from 563 million passengers.

The frequency of bumping passengers from flights also declined after the DOT doubled the cash penalties airlines have to pay to passengers involuntarily denied boarding. Last year,


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