Air travel has become ubiquitous. In the past year, 60 million people have taken to the skies in the United States. That’s a lot. These days, flying is cheaper than ever, and we know where that money is actually going. Planes are getting faster, more efficient and more luxurious.
If you were one of the 60 million people boarding a plane this year, chances are you had a pretty non-eventful and easy flight. Only 1,055 people filed a consumer complaint in the calendar year, according the Department of Transportation. That’s out of 60 million! ExpressJet logged the lowest number of complaints while Spirit Air logged the highest.
In a report studying the 12 largest U.S. carriers, flights are being canceled at a lower rate, and they’re arriving on time more often than not. Of course anomalies are going to happen. Weather, mechanical issues, and human error are just realities of any mode of transportation. That being said, cancellations were down to 1% of flights in March 2016, compared to 2.2% of flights in March 2015; 81.5% of flights arrived on time in March 2016, up from 78.7% of flights in March 2015. The improvements are welcomed for any traveler.
Hawaiian and Delta ranked the highest with 89.9% and 87.9% of flights arriving on schedule, respectively. At the bottom of the barrel were Virgin America (on time 73.8% of the time) and Spirit Air (on time 64.6% of the time). Poor Spirit Air, they’re like Will Arnett of flying. They’re only dependable just over half the time.
Now if only the TSA could get its sh*t together.
Happy flying, everyone!
(Via ABCNews)
