Over the past six months, I’ve flown on roughly 10 roundtrip flights. Excuse me for the ranting that is about to occur, but my last flight was the worst of them all. Out of all 20 flights, only two came in on time and without any problems.
I couldn’t help but think, “What would I do if I was required to travel this way for my job?” If your job requires you to travel, bite the bullet otherwise known as rising gas prices and DRIVE. At least that’s the conclusion I drew. It used to be that we flew for convenience, relaxation, and to get us to our destination quickly. Well those days are over.
The airlines lead us to believe that the majority of delays are due to occurrences out of their control, such as weather conditions. However, taking a look at the year-to-date numbers (January – April 2008) from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, it shows a very different story.
Out of the total number of flights, only 72% show up on time. Here’s what happens to the rest:
– 8.5%: National Aviation System (delays that are non-weather related, airport operations, heavy traffic volume or air traffic control)
– 8.37%: Late arriving aircraft (delay from a previous flight)
– 6.65%: Air carrier delay (delay are due to circumstances within the airline’s control such as fuel delays, maintenance or short staffed on crew members)
– 2.93%: Cancelled flights (for any of these reasons)
– 0.89%: Extreme weather delays
– 0.06%: Security delays
Before even looking at these statistics, I decided my only reason for flying from now on would be emergencies and lack of time. After seeing them, I guess it’s definitely time to get the air conditioning fixed in my car. Sure, gas is expensive, but maybe there’s a reason it’s actually cheaper to fly in many cases.
For you folks that travel regularly for business, how on earth do you cope?
This is guest post by Lauren Kleinman.
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