Because it seems, the largest reason for delayed flights and cancellations because the starting of the COVID-19 pandemic is truly the airways themselves, in line with new knowledge from the Federal Aviation Administration. The info is an efficient option to contextualize rising rigidity between the FAA and the airline trade as an entire. It can be checked out as a prelude to the finger pointing between the 2 entities we’re going to see this summer time.
So, what do the numbers inform us? Effectively, proper off the bat we will see that flights had been delayed very often. Between January of 2019 and February of 2023, 1.6 million flights had been collectively delayed 5.3 million hours. That’s over 605 years value of delays that had been primarily brought on by points throughout the airline’s management akin to upkeep and crew issues, plane cleansing and baggage loading, in line with the information.
FAA knowledge additionally exhibits that 1.3 million flights — about 4.7 % of all flights in the course of the time interval — had been delayed in January of 2023 when a difficulty throughout the nationwide aviation system brought about a critical laptop outage. It was a nightmare for everybody concerned.
We will additionally see {that a} whopping 1.5 million flights had been delayed by one other inbound plane arriving late, however it doesn’t clarify why these inbound flights had been delayed. If I used to be a betting man, I’d guess the blame lies someplace throughout the airline.
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The wildest stat from the FAA’s data, though, is one that’ll annoy seasoned travelers. You know how your airline blamed a climate situation for a delay? Some fog, a bit turbulence, or a rain bathe? Yeah, they had been nearly definitely mendacity to you. FAA knowledge exhibits that unhealthy climate solely accounted for 178,000 delays in the course of the time interval. That works out to 0.65 % of flights and sure encompasses delays as a result of extreme winter climate.
By way of cancellations, over 776,000 flights acquired the can. That works out to be 2.8 % of all flights. An extra 63,000 — or 0.2 % — had been diverted. We will’t make sure precisely why these items occurred, because the FAA didn’t give that data.
I do know what you’re pondering. That’s a shit-ton of flights. There should be extra planes within the air than ever. Effectively, the excellent news is that it isn’t. Over the 50 months referenced within the research, 21.9 million flights — or 79.8 % — arrived on time. That’s truly proper consistent with on-time arrival statistics from the earlier decade. So, flying does certainly suck, however it sucks simply as a lot because it all the time has. I suppose you may take some solace in that.