With Airline Delays Up, New 'Campaign for On-Time Flights' Urges Congress to Support Program to Reduce Delays: UNITE HERE

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

For frequent fliers who felt like they had way more delays in 2014 than a couple of years earlier, it wasn't just bad luck. Today, the Campaign for On-Time Flights launched with a new website, OnTimeFlights.org, and a report that shows that at United, American and Delta, the percentage of flights delayed or cancelled went up 88 percent collectively, comparing 2014 to 2012. A total of 1 in 4 flights were delayed or cancelled in 2014.

• Delta Air Lines DAL saw the greatest surge in the percentage of flights delayed or cancelled between 2012 and 2014, with a 124 percent increase.
• American Airlines AAL had a 66 percent increase in the percentage of flights delayed or cancelled during the same time period.
• United Airlines UAL had a 73 percent increase.

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. Unfortunately, airlines are lobbying hard against it.

Every airline ticket includes money to make airports run more efficiently and help fund new terminal facilities, new runways and other airport improvements. Right now, the federal government does not let airports set the Passenger Facility Charge on their own. Instead, the federal government puts a cap on it, and that cap has not gone up since 2000.

Our new analysis of Department of Transportation data shows the percentage of national aviation system delays attributed to high volume has gone up every year since 2006.

Airports are trying to get permission to increase the PFC to keep up with travel demand but airlines and their lobbyists are trying to block it. United, Delta, and American, as well as the industry group Airlines for America, together spent over $68 million total in lobbying efforts on a multitude of issues from 2012 to 2014.

This summer, frustrated travelers can 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 OnTimeFlights.org.

The Campaign for On-Time Flights is an initiative of UNITE HERE, a union of hospitality employees at airports who work every day to get passengers where they're going, on time.

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