Seattle, New York earn top spot on airport delay list

Jonathan D. Salant

Monday, July 23, 2001 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- More than one-quarter of flights into 11 of the nation's busiest airports were at least 15 minutes late during the first five months of the year, government figures show.

It was a coast-to-coast problem: Seattle and New York topped the list.

At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 31.3 percent of flights were late from January through May, the Transportation Department said. New York's LaGuardia Airport was just behind, at 31.1 percent.

Three of every 10 flights to Los Angeles International Airport arrived at least 15 minutes behind schedule during the period leading into the summer travel season.

Boston, New York Kennedy, San Francisco, Chicago O'Hare, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego and Newark, N.J., all had at least 25 percent of their flights arriving late.

The numbers are the first look at the airports with the most late flights, as compared with the on-time records of individual airlines or particular flights. The government found 20 regularly scheduled flights arriving late at least half the time last year.

"You won't leave on time; you won't get there on time," said Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University and co-author of an annual study of airline quality. "They confirm what consumers have already built into their own behavior."

For example, passengers may carry their bags on board an airplane rather than checking them in order to save time when they land because they expect to arrive behind schedule, Headley said.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported in April that airlines have scheduled so many flights at certain airports that there is no way all of those planes can take off or land on time.

Airline industry representatives point to a shortage of runways and an air traffic control system unable to handle the increase in air travel.

"The problem is capacity," said Alaska Airlines pilot Jack Wilkes, who has been a pilot for 28 years. "We're trying to put too many airplanes in the same space at the same time."

The industry and airport executives have been pushing to speed up construction of new runways, primarily by reducing the time it takes for federal, state and local officials to grant the necessary permits.

In Seattle, spokeswoman Terri-Ann Mohon said the problem with delays should be eliminated in 2006, when a long-sought third runway is expected to be completed.

Until then, she said, "We're looking at another good five years of weather-related delays at the airport." Seattle's rain and fog often reduce visibility to the point where the airport can use only one of its two runways because they are so close.

Observed Wilkes: "The joke is if there is a cloud in the sky, there must be delays in Seattle. It's because of the way the airport is laid out."

Mohon said a February earthquake that damaged the Seattle control tower in February did not cause an increase in delays.

Over the first five months in 2000, 30 percent of flights arriving in Seattle were late. That was the eighth-worst record among airports, with San Francisco (39 percent) leading the pack.

During all of 2000, 43 percent of planes arriving at LaGuardia were at least 15 minutes late, as compared with 32 percent for Seattle, which put that airport in seventh place.

FAA spokesman William Shumann said flight delays at LaGuardia dropped after the agency in February awarded takeoff and landing slots by lottery, reducing the number of flights.

Some airlines have acted to reduce delays by rescheduling flights away from peak times, or by rerouting some flights to avoid crowded hub airports.

Headley said the percentage of late flights is actually higher; airline schedules are already padded to cover the extra time a plane may spend on the ground waiting to take off or get to a gate.

"They've already made allowances for the fact that they're going to have these delays and they still have one in four flights delayed," Headley said. "They wonder then why people get angry at the airlines."