As Flight Delays at United, American & Delta Jump, Airlines Oppose Airport Proposal for Funding that Could Be Used to Reduce Delays
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Adam Yalowitz
AYalowitz@unitehere.org
312-273-2569
Campaign for
OnTimeFlights.org
On-time Flights
Policy Brief
As Flight Delays at United, American
& Delta Jump, Airlines Oppose Airport
Proposal for Funding that Could Be
Used to Reduce Delays
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2014, the percentage of delayed flights at United, Delta and American Airlines
increased 88 percent compared to 2012. A total of 1 in 4 flights were delayed or cancelled
in 2014, with some routes experiencing more frequent delays or cancellations. The toll in
2014: 77 million minutes in flight delays, or about 12,000 years lost by passengers in the
United States.
As the U.S. airline industry is preparing for its busiest summer ever, our analysis of
Department of Transportation data shows that the percentage of national aviation system
delays attributed to high volume has gone up every single year since 2006.
Passengers’ fortunes could begin to change this fall. As part of the FAA Reauthorization,
airports want Congress to remove federal restrictions on a funding source that they could
use to help curb these delays. The problem? Airlines are lobbying hard against it.
Airline Delays on the Rise
Frequent fliers: it may not be much consolation, but if you felt like you had way more delays in
2014 than you remember having a couple of years earlier, it probably wasn’t just bad luck or your
imagination. At United, American and Delta the percentage of flights delayed or cancelled went up
88 percent collectively, comparing 2014 to 2012.1Delta Air Lines saw the greatest surge in the percentage of flights delayed or cancelled between
2012 and 2014, with a 124 percent increase. During that same time period, American Airlines had
a 66 percent increase in the percentage of flights delayed or cancelled. United Airlines had a 73
percent increase, but had a higher overall percentage of flights delayed or cancelled in both 2012
and 2014 than Delta and American.
A total of 1 in 4 United, Delta and American flights were delayed or cancelled in 2014. These Big
Three airlines account for over 50 percent of the entire domestic airline market.2
1 in 4 flights delayed or cancelled in 2014
66% increase American Airlines
73% increase United Airlines
124% increase Delta Airlines
Increase in percentage of flights delayed
or cancelled between 2012 and 2014
Some routes had it even worse. In 2014, United’s flights to Atlanta were delayed or cancelled over
60 percent of the time. Almost 34 percent of Delta’s flights to Chicago O’Hare were delayed or
cancelled. American fared worst on flights to San Francisco, with over 36 percent of flights delayed
or cancelled.
2Percentage of United, Delta and American arriving flights delayed or cancelled to
the top 10 U.S. airports in 2014. 3
United Delta American
FLIGHTS TO:
Chicago (ORD) 31.75% 33.96% 28.64%
Atlanta (ATL) 60.57% 26.64% 23.06%
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) 30.75% 23.06% 21.31%
Los Angeles (LAS) 30.28% 23.42% 22.93%
Denver (DEN) 27.16% 30.84% 33.43%
Charlotte (CLT) 34.00% 31.19% 28.99%
Las Vegas (LAS) 26.74% 25.67% 29.49%
Houston (IAH) 24.37% 25.99% 23.25%
San Francisco (SFO) 34.37% 32.06% 36.41%
New York (JFK) 27.81% 28.03% 26.42%
Cost to Passengers and the Economy
While airline profits are anticipated to reach $25
billion this year, increasing flight delays imposes 2014
costs on passengers and the U.S. economy. There 12,000
77 million
were over 77 million minutes in domestic flight years
minutes
delays in 2014, according to data from the U.S.
Department of Transportation.4 Statistician in domestic flight lost by travelers to
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com has estimated delays, 2014 flight delays, 2014
estimate
that flight delays resulted in 12,000 years lost by
travelers in 2014.5
The cost to passengers of flight delays
was estimated at over $16 billion per
$16 Billion year, according to a landmark 2010 study
commissioned by the FAA that found that
3flight delays cost the U.S. economy tens of billions of dollars each year based on data from 2007.6 A
separate study by the U.S. Travel Association showed that in 2013, flight delays, cancellations and
other “flying hassles” like airline fees discouraged Americans from taking 38 million trips, costing
the U.S. economy $35.7 billion.7
High Volume of Travel Increasingly a Culprit
The airline industry has predicted that
this summer will be the busiest in U.S.
air travel history, with over 222 million
travelers expected to fly this summer in
the United States.8
With the growth in air travel, airports are
becoming more and more congested. In
a 2014 study, the U.S Travel Association
predicted that Thanksgiving-like travel
conditions will soon become the new
normal if America’s airport infrastructure
is not modernized.9
Our analysis of Department of
Transportation data reveals that the
percentage of National Aviation System
delays attributed to high traffic volume
has gone up every single year since 2006.
Delays due to high traffic volume more
than doubled from 2006 to 2014.10
Airports want to Reduce Delays, but Airlines are
Standing in the Way
Frustrated travelers may feel helpless about mounting travel misfortunes, but a related behind-the-
scenes battle has been raging between airports and airlines in Congress. Airports want to reduce a
federal restriction on a program that could help them reduce these delays, but airlines are lobbying
hard against it.
4Every airline ticket includes money to make airport improvements. Think better runways, more
gates. Think less waiting in lines on the tarmac for what can feel too long.
Right now, the federal government does not let
airports set the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC)
on their own. Instead, the federal government puts
a cap on it, and that cap has not gone up since
2000. In fact, it’s going in the opposite direction
– the PFC has lost over 36 percent of its value to $75 billion
inflation in those 15 years. Over $75 billion is
needed over the next five years for infrastructure improvements at America’s airports.11
Airports are trying to get permission to increase the PFC to keep up with travel demand – to
reduce delays and avoid Thanksgiving-like travel every day – but airlines and their team of
lobbyists are trying to stop them.
United, Delta, and American, as well as the industry group
“Infrastructure modernization Airlines for America, together spent over $68 million total
equals more terminal space in lobbying efforts on a multitude of issues from 2012
to 2014.13 Since 2012, the airline industry has opposed
for competitors, which equals
allowing airports to set the Passenger Facility Charge
more choices and better fares based on what they need.14
and service for consumers.”
U.S. Travel Association Executive The fortune of travelers could change this fall when
Vice President Jonathan Grella12 Congress takes up the FAA Reauthorization bill. President
Obama has proposed allowing airports to increase the
PFC if they need to, but again, the airlines are fighting it.
This summer, frustrated and delayed travelers may be wise to use their newfound spare time to
tell Congress to ignore the airlines and instead give airports a chance to make their next trip a bit
smoother. They can do so at www.ontimeflights.org.
Campaign for
On-time Flights
The Campaign for On-Time Flights is an initiative of UNITE HERE. We represent
hospitality employees at airports who work every day to get passengers where they’re going,
on time. We can’t control the weather. But we’ll do everything else we can.
5Endnotes
1 http://www.transtats.bts.gov/HomeDrillChart.asp?URL_SelectMonth=2&URL_SelectYear=2015
2 http://www.transtats.bts.gov/
3 http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2015/01/21/chicago-ohare-retakes-worlds-busiest-title--sort-
of/22125499/
4 http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Oneway.asp?Display_Flag=&Percent_Flag=
5 http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fastest-airlines-fastest-airports/
6 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101804335.html
7 https://www.ustravel.org/news/press-releases/survey-flying-hassles-keep-travelers-home, https://www.ustravel.org/
sites/default/files/page/2013/08/03_Fact_Sheet-Airport_Modernization_final.pdf
8 http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2015/05/18/airlines-summer-travel-record-passengers/27522349/
9 https://www.ustravel.org/news/press-releases/study-thanksgiving-airport-congestion-will-be-year-round-reality-
sooner-expected
10 http://www.transtats.bts.gov/OT_Delay/ot_delaycause1.asp?type=5&pn=1
11 http://www.airportsunited.com/#!pfc/c1xnz
12 https://www.ustravel.org/news/press-releases/everyone-senate-hearing-except-airlines-gets-air-travel-system-
broken
13 https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000021464&year=2014, https://www.
opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000350&year=2015, https://www.opensecrets.org/
lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000067697&year=2015 and https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.
php?id=D000000545&year=2015
14 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/passenger-facility-charges_n_6177984.html
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