FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 29, 2000
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: 202-366-5571
DOT 230-00
Task Force Submits Recommendations To U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater For Additional Airline On-Time Reporting
As part of a continuing U.S. Department of Transportation effort to increase air passenger satisfaction, a special task force today submitted recommendations to U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater on ways to improve on-time flight information and enhance customer understanding of why some flights are canceled or delayed.
The task force agreed on seven new categories of cancellations and departure delays that it recommends carriers be required to report. In addition, the task force developed a framework for further analysis of the causes of cancellations and departure delays.
"In the spirit of President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s ‘putting people first,’ I established this task force to examine how we can provide better information to consumers about flight delays and cancellations, especially the reasons for flight problems," Secretary Slater said. "Improving customer service ranks second only to safety at the U.S. Department of Transportation, and I look forward to reviewing these recommendations."
This effort follows Secretary Slater’s meetings in late August with aviation stakeholders on improving airline customer service. One of the projects growing out of those meetings was a task force to develop ideas for modifying the on-time performance information airlines report to the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Secretary Slater named Associate Deputy Secretary of Transportation Stephen D. Van Beek to head the task force.
The task force also is a response to a provision in the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR 21), which instructed the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a task force to improve airline service quality performance reports and to provide the public with fuller information about flight cancellations and delays.
Members of the task force, which met between Oct. 25 and Nov. 13, represented a cross-section of aviation stakeholders, including representatives from airlines, consumer groups, labor unions and airport operators. The task force examined the reasons for flight delays and cancellations and recommended ways to modify airline on-time performance reports to include this information. Currently, the on-time information submitted by the 10 largest U.S. passenger carriers to BTS identifies only the frequency and duration of flight delays and cancellations, not the cause.
The task force also recommended that before rulemaking there be a pilot test, with one or more carriers, of the proposed new reporting categories.
The task force’s specific recommendations include three new categories of reporting on flight cancellations. They are the following:
- cancellations caused by circumstances within airline control, such as nonavailability of crew or gate, maintenance, security, etc.
- cancellations due to extreme weather.
- cancellations due to circumstances within the national aviation system such as high volume and lack of airport capacity or weather conditions, even though they are not extreme, and air traffic control.
The task force also recommended that airlines be required to report on four new categories of flight delays. They are:
- delays due to circumstances within an airline’s control;
- delays due to extreme weather;
- delays due to circumstances within the national aviation system; and
- delays due to late arriving flights.
In addition to the on-time reporting task force, the August meetings also led to an effort to identify the carriers’ "best practices" for improving the accuracy and timeliness of flight information provided to air travelers. The report on the department’s findings, Best Practices for Improving the Air Travel Experience, was issued Oct. 11 during the historic International Transportation Symposium, co-hosted by the department, the District of Columbia and the Greater Washington Board of Trade and attended by ministers of transport and other delegations from over 90 countries. The Best Practices report is available at http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/aviation. In addition, the department’s Federal Aviation Administration is moving forward with the industry to develop a long-term plan to address the airways and airport capacity problem. A report will be available in December.
The task force report will be available via the Internet at http://www.dot.gov/ost.
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