It’s been a bumper summer for air travel but passengers have experienced more than their fair share of delays and disruption.
The Labor Day weekend, seen as the unofficial end of the peak travel season, is set to be a busy one—and with Hurricane Idalia heading toward Florida, some travelers could face disruption.
Summer flight delays have been getting incrementally worse in recent years, with the exception of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic meant there were far fewer flights scheduled. Between May 1 to Aug. 29 around 24% of flights to, from, or within the U.S. have been delayed, according to data from flight-tracker FlightAware. The average delay was 55 minutes, up from 52 minutes the previous year.
A delayed flight is defined as one that arrives 15 minutes or more after its scheduled arrival.
Over the same period in 2022, 23% of flights were delayed, while 20% of those scheduled were delayed in 2021, and 18% were delayed in 2019.
It’s not just the summer, the entire year so far has been tougher on passengers. In 2023, 23% of flights have been delayed—worse than the 21% in the first eight months of last year.
Delta Air Lines
(ticker: DAL) is the best-performing major airline for punctuality in 2023, with 20% of its flights delayed, followed by
Alaska Air Group
‘s (ALK) Alaska Airlines, with 21%.
The three other members of the so-called Big Four all have very similar performance records.
American Airlines
(AAL), which was fined a record $4.1 million earlier this week for keeping passengers stuck in planes on the tarmac for more than three hours, is the third best with 25% of flights delayed.
While 26% of
United Airlines
‘ (UAL) and 26% of
Southwest Airlines
‘ (LUV) flights have arrived more than 15 minutes late. Southwest’s average delay time is 36 minutes, while Alaska’s is 37 minutes, compared with around an hour for Delta, United, and American.
At the other end of the scale, 35% of
Frontier Airlines
‘ (ULCC) flights have been delayed, 33% of
JetBlue Airways
’ (JBLU), and 32% of
Spirit Airlines
‘ (SAVE).
Frontier, JetBlue, and Spirit did not immediately respond to a Barron’s request for comment early Wednesday.
Southwest’s performance, relative to its peers, may surprise some, particularly after it began 2023 with a holiday travel meltdown. The low-cost carrier took a $325 million revenue hit from the disruption as affected passengers canceled return flights and many opted to book with other airlines in January and February.
Southwest has since implemented an action plan, and completed more than 99% of flights in the second quarter, which the airline said was its best performance in the past 10 years.
Despite the improvement, and its reliability being largely in line with, or better than, its competitors, Southwest stock has lagged behind. The shares have fallen 5.5% so far in 2023, while Delta and United are up by more than 30%. Part of that is down to Delta and United’s international exposure, and more recently signs of a domestic slowdown.
But Southwest missed out on the sector’s early 2023 rally, in particular, as investors lost confidence following the disruption.
Flight chaos doesn’t typically lead to a significant impact on airline stocks, as it takes a lot for consumers’ frustration to reach a level where it begins to hit a carrier’s revenue—as it did with Southwest.
Flight delays and cancellations can be incredibly frustrating but it seems the cost of airfares may be even more important in determining customer satisfaction. Passenger satisfaction fell for a second consecutive year, according to a study by data analytics firm J.D. Power published in May. The biggest factor driving satisfaction lower was higher costs and fees, it added.
On that front, at least, there’s good news for the consumer. Airline fares fell 8.1% in July from the previous month, a fourth consecutive monthly decline, according consumer price index data released earlier this month. Ticket prices in July were 18.6% lower than they were a year ago.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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