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GAO-08-1041R 1 (2008-09-17)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptawcv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i= i Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 September 17, 2008 The Honorable Ted Stevens United States Senate Subject: Commercial Aviation: Impact of Airline Crew Scheduling on Delays and Cancellations of Commercial Flights Dear Senator Stevens: Media coverage of airline service problems, combined with congressional hearings on these problems, has put flight delays and cancellations in the spotlight. Department of Transportation (DOT) data show that flight delays and cancellations have generally increased over the last decade. Since 1998, the number of flight delays and cancellations has increased 62 percent nationwide, while the number of scheduled flight operations' has increased about 38 percent. Also, a May 2008 report by the Joint Economic Committee found that, collectively, passengers were delayed 320 million hours in 2007. The report also estimated that domestic flight delays last year cost the U.S. economy as much as $41 billion and raised airlines' operating costs by $19 billion.2 In 2007, airlines reported to DOT that 73 percent of flights were on time, while 24 percent were delayed and 2 percent were canceled.' Of those flights that were delayed, airlines reported the majority of flight delays were caused by 3 categories of delays: a previous aircraft arriving late; the national aviation system-a category of delays that encompasses a broad set of circumstances, such as congestion or bad weather; and air carrier-a category of 42 potential causes of delay that includes, but is not limited to, iFlight means any nonstop scheduled passenger flight segment with a specific flight number scheduled to be operated pursuant to a published schedule within a specific origin-destination city pair, other than transborder or foreign air transportation. See 14 C.F.R. § 234.2. 'Joint Economic Committee Majority Staff, Your Right Has Been Delayed Again: Right Delays Cost Passengers, Airlines, and the U.S. Economy Billions (Washington, D.C.: May 2008). 3Federal regulations require that domestic air carriers that account for at least 1 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenues submit scheduled domestic flight performance data, including the cause of delays and cancellations, to DOT. See 14 C.F.R. §§ 234.1-234.4. In 2007, 20 carriers, operating about 70 percent of all scheduled departures and serving about 90 percent of all domestic passengers, reported these data. 4 Less than 1 percent of flights were diverted. GAO-08-1041R Airline Crew Scheduling Page 1

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