U.S. carriers in June operated fewer flights than they did in May, but the percentage of cancellations spiked, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest Air Traffic Consumer Report.
Reporting carriers operated nearly 601,000 flights, up 2.9 percent year over year, but down about 2 percent from May’s nearly 613,000 total. Cancellations increased to 2.1 percent of the scheduled flights, up from 0.6 percent reported in May, but lower than 3.1 percent in June 2022.
For the first six months of 2023, reporting carriers had a cancellation rate of 1.6 percent, down from 3.2 percent in the first half of 2022.
The U.S. carriers in June with the lowest rates of canceled flights included Alaska Airlines Network (0.3 percent), Allegiant Air (0.6 percent) and Southwest Airlines (0.6 percent). Those with the highest rates of cancellations included United Airlines Network (4.5 percent), Frontier Airlines (3.9 percent) and JetBlue (3.5 percent). Networks include branded codeshare partners.
Carriers in June handled 43.4 million bags and reported a mishandled baggage rate of 0.70 percent, higher than the 0.51 percent reported in May, but lower than the 0.71 percent reported in June 2022. For the first half of 2023, carriers reported a mishandled baggage rate of 0.61 percent, lower than the rate of 0.63 percent from the first half of 2022.
For the seventh month in a row, DOT did not include complaint data in its report due to the increase in volume of complaints. The department “is examining how best to review and process the increased number of consumer complaints received in 2023 so not to delay its reporting.” The last complaint data DOT reported was for February 2023, released Aug. 2.
DOT: May Flight Cancellations Down