2.7% Of All Major North American Airline Disruptions In June Were +3-Hour Delays

A new study published by AviLabs, the parent company of Plan3, a passenger disruption management platform, revealed that 2.7% of all major airline disruptions in North America were more than three-hour delays and cancelations in June.

North America worst region for delays

The study revealed that North America was the worst region for delays during the month, followed by Asia-Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), Middle East and Africa (ME&A), and Europe.

In North America, 2.7% of all disruptions among tier 1 carriers, which Plan3 classified as airlines with more than 17,000 flights per month and 25 million passengers per year, were major delays and cancelations.

Globally, there was a 23.3% month-on-month (MoM) increase in medium (between one and three hours) and major delays (more than three hours) and cancelations, impacting 8.8 million more passengers in June.

In APAC, 2.1% of all planned flights had experienced major delays, affecting around 3 million passengers, while in Europe, increasing major delays and cancelations resulted in around 1.3 million travelers being eligible for compensations under EU261 regulations.

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American Airlines among the worst major airlines

The study’s data also revealed that American Airlines suffered the most disruption during the month, with Spirit Airlines and JetBlue trailing the former carrier. Southwest, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines followed the three aforementioned airlines.

Meanwhile, the two best-performing airlines among major carriers in the region were Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines, with Plan3 detailing that 15.3% and 19.2% of their flights during the month were affected by disruptions, respectively.

Photo: EndeavorMoorePhotography | Shutterstock

The best-performing airlines within tier 2 carriers, which have between 6,500 and 17,000 flights per month, carrying between 10 million and 25 million passengers per year, were Aeromexico (13.6% total disruption), PSA Airlines (17.6% total disruption), and Endeavor Air (21.3% total disruption).

The worst-performing carriers were Frontier Airlines (35.1% total disruption), Air Canada (31.1% total disruption), and WestJet (30.5% total disruption), with the latter’s operations being affected by the strike of its maintenance and engineering technicians, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA).

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Methodology

Plan3 is a company that has advertised that it sells a passenger disruption management platform, which offers airlines a simple solution to bundle and publish travel and/or stay options for affected travelers, including new flights, transportation, or hotels.

The company sourced data from FlightAware, which uses the United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) definition of a delay as a flight that exceeded the scheduled gate arrival time by 14 minutes.

Photo: Steve Heap | Shutterstock

It estimated the affected passengers by using a “conservative estimation” of the number of travelers that required some form of assistance from the airline, ranging from a simple update to a full rebooking and/or accommodation.

Plan3 assumed an average load factor of 80%, with an average flight being calculated by total passengers divided by total flights for a given time period.

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