Toronto consultant Ken Wood has heard a lot of excuses for late flights since he started making weekly commutes to Jacksonville, Fla. in January.
Flying mainly in the evening, he has been told his flights were delayed because of accumulated earlier backups, late arrival of aircraft, too few airport workers and, of course, bad weather. Once he had to sit on the plane waiting until someone delivered forms for the captain to sign. On another occasion, a two-hour delay was blamed on a burnt-out light bulb.
Overall, 90 per cent of his Air Canada and United Airlines flights arrived behind schedule, he says. Most of the delays occurred at Washington's Dulles airport.
Are late flights becoming more common? Ernie Manicom of Halifax, who is retired and takes many international vacations, doesn't think so. He has flown on Air Canada 29 times since January, 2006, and experienced only two delays. Both were for mechanical reasons, he says, and lasted less than 30 minutes.
The most embarrassing delays in recent weeks were those of Forest Hill, N.Y.-based JetBlue Airways, which experienced a week of cancelled flights and stranded passengers following a Valentine's Day ice storm in the U.S. The airline has promised to do better in the future. It admitted it goofed by trying to keep flying in harsh conditions. The move left crews, planes, passengers and luggage scattered across the country, with inadequate logistical backup to restart the schedule.
Air Canada works hard to avoid such disruptions, says carrier spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick, "and that sometimes entails pre-emptively cancelling flights."
There is no legal requirement for Canadian-based airlines to release their on-time statistics, but WestJet does so voluntarily, posting its monthly figures on its website.
Recently the data for other Canadian airlines have started turning up on a number of websites that track the progress of flights. FlightStats ( ), one of those Web companies, will even send free late-flight alerts by cellphone. It also displays on-time records for airlines and for specific flights.
As a result, travellers are empowered as never before to choose airlines, flights and airports that are most likely to be problem-free. (The sites sell detailed statistics to airlines and airports, but make consumer information available online for free.) Here's a guide to airline promises -- not always put into practice -- and coping strategies for travellers for when things start running late.
When is a late flight late?
Most airlines and the U.S. Department of Transportation consider a flight has departed on time if it pulls away from the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. Airlines say any hold-ups after that are not their fault. But that's little consolation to passengers if the plane then sits on the tarmac for 45 minutes. The flightstats.com site, using data from navigation, airline and airport sources, gives a truer picture of when flights actually depart, basing its calculations on takeoff time.
As for arrivals, most sources consider a flight on time if it reaches the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
Are delays more common?
In Canada, consumer complaints about late and cancelled flights are rising only marginally, says Marc Comeau, spokesman for the Canadian Transportation Agency. Travellers filed 606 complaints last year, up from 597 in 2005.
South of the border, however, where the Department of Transportation (DOT) releases the on-time record for domestic flights of large U.S. carriers on a monthly basis, things appear to be getting worse. In 2004, the DOT says, 78.1 per cent of flights arrived on time. That fell to 77.4 per cent in 2005, to 75.5 per cent in 2006 and to 73.1 per cent in January.
Who's counting?
Air Canada declines to release its on-time statistics on a regular basis, but its year-end results state that the carrier had an 80-per-cent on-time record from October, 2005 to September, 2006. Air Transat does not release formal statistics on delays, but says about 90 per cent of its flights leave the gate on time.
WestJet posts its on-time record on its website and compares it with DOT statistics for U.S. carriers. For November, 2006, the site shows WestJet with a score of 76.5, which would have put it in 10th place when compared with U.S. airlines. The DOT gave the top score for that month, 93.2, to Aloha Airlines, which is based in Hawaii where winter weather is never a problem. WestJet says its overall on-time score for 2006 was 81.7 per cent.
This January and February, when storms disrupted many North American airports, some Canadian carriers were struggling to keep on time, according to the flightstats.com website. It shows WestJet scoring 73 per cent, Air Canada 67 per cent and Air Transat 64 per cent. Richmond, B.C.-based Harmony Airways comes in at 95 per cent.
Air Canada's Fitzpatrick points out that the national carrier offers a sophisticated network with thousands of connections through its Star Alliance partners. He says it is "not meaningful," to compare the national carrier with small carriers that fly only within North America or operate only a point-to-point charter-vacation business.
Excuses, excuses
An informal survey of frequent Canadian travellers shows that everyone has theories on why flights are late. Aside from snowstorms and de-icing (facts of life in Canada), a number blamed air traffic control, staff shortages at airports, startup problems with new equipment (particularly Air Canada's E190 aircraft) and airport congestion that results from an increasing number of small aircraft.
The only official list of causes is published in the U.S. by the DOT, which covers only domestic flights of large American carriers. From June, 2003, until this January, the DOT says the most common reason for lateness (at 7.7 per cent) was national aviation system delays (non-extreme weather conditions, airport operations, heavy traffic volume and air traffic control). Coming in second was late-arriving aircraft. Other causes included carrier delays (maintenance or crew problems, aircraft cleaning, baggage loading, fuelling), security delays and extreme weather. The figures also show that 2 per cent of U.S. flights were diverted or cancelled.
Protecting yourself
The age-old advice still holds: Phone your airline or check its website before heading to the airport to see if your flight is delayed. Many airlines also have systems that notify travellers through mobile devices of the estimated departure time for their flights.
As well, a number of independent websites now track the progress of flights in the air, which is helpful if you plan to meet someone's flight. While , flightview.com and flytecomm.com provide information mainly for flights within North America, flightstats.com tracks airplanes around the world. And since these sites get some of their information from air navigation sources, they sometimes post flight delays before airlines get around to announcing them.
Historical information posted on flightstats.com can help travellers choose airlines, flights and airports that have good on-time records.
For example, if you are flying from Toronto's Pearson to New York LaGuardia, an airport often plagued by congestion and weather problems, you might want to pick Air Canada Jazz's flight 7496 departing at 12:15 p.m. which had a 100 per cent on-time record in January and February. On the other hand, Air Canada's flight 718 leaving at 2:25 p.m. was on time only 33 per cent of the time. The site does not give reasons for the discrepancies, but it might well relate to heavier congestion later in the afternoon. If possible, avoid changing planes in storm-prone airports in winter, such as Denver and Chicago.
Book your flights on one of the gold or platinum cards that include flight-delay insurance. American Express, for example, covers expenses of up to $500 on its gold card and up to $1,000 on its platinum card for flights delayed more than four hours.
Airline assistance
According to Air Canada's website, the carrier will "attempt to notify" travellers or their travel agents if flights are going to be delayed, and will rebook passengers on the next available flight in case of a cancellation.
In an emergency, that doesn't always happen, as Ruth Stern, president of Toronto-based Colour Revolution, found out in January. She paid for two unnecessary trips to the airport in New York because she hadn't been notified that her flight to Toronto, as well as the one she was rebooked on the following day, were both cancelled. She finally got out on the third day after paying for two additional nights' hotel accommodation.
The Air Canada website promises to pay for food and accommodation for out-of-town fliers caught in extended delays. But there is a proviso. Those delays must be caused by Air Canada. In Stern's case, the airline blamed the delays on snow and wind conditions in Toronto, so no financial help was offered.
Most airlines have similar policies to Air Canada's. WestJet also gives vouchers toward future travel for delays of two hours on short and medium flights, and for delays of three hours on long flights. Air Transat says that in cases of extreme delays it will give out travel vouchers and, in exceptional cases, even cash.
But, as always, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you think you should be compensated for delay-related expenses, speak up.
Who's on time?
Here's how Air Canada, WestJet and 10 of the largest U.S. scheduled airlines scored for on-time performance in January and February. (Note that US Airways and America West, which were in the process of merging, are listed separately.)
Southwest Airlines, Skywest Airlines: 81 per cent.
WestJet: 73 per cent.
Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines: 72 per cent.
Delta Air Lines: 71 per cent.
America West, Alaska Airlines: 70 per cent.
American Airlines: 68 per cent.
Air Canada, United Airlines, US Airways: 67 per cent.
-- Source: flightstats.com