Airline delays continue to cause headaches for American travelers

Airline delays appear to be getting worse in the

United States, despite the fact that carriers have tried to commit themselves to improving the situation after a frustrating summer season. According to the most recent report made public by the Transportation Department, over 25% of all domestic

US flights are delayed. This makes the current state of delays in the

US commercial airline industry the worst, since the mid-1990s. Increasing frustration is now directed at airlines from two sides—passengers, who are being inconvenienced, and government, which is trying to devise ways to make airlines more reliable.

The Transportation Department’s report also concluded that only 71.7% of flights arrive on time–as advertised in the schedules of the country’s 20 largest airlines—representing a five point decrease over last year’s figures. Not surprisingly, the number of passengers who have filed complaints due to delays has increased two-fold since 2006. Robert Mann, an airline consultant based in the state of New York, observed that carriers appear to be blaming just about everyone else—including airports, which they claim use dated traffic and control technology—save themselves. Yet the industry is being squeezed by an increasingly impatient government on one side, and angry passengers on the other. It appears inevitable, that carriers will have to eventually address the problem of delays and propose real solutions, because if this does not happen, the

US government has already indicated that it will intervene. Possible solutions include charging airlines that leave at peak times and limiting the number of flights at the busiest hours of the day and at the most frequented airports.