Business Travel Tips

On-time performance reports for airlines and airports released by FlightStats show the average on-time departure performance among the top 30 busiest airports worldwide in February improved when compared with the previous months. It was 76.52% up from January’s 76.08%, 74.33% in December and from November’s 73.47%.

The top 10 performers among the world’s busiest airports and their on-time arrival percentages were:
HND Tokyo, JP – 94.34%
PHX Phoenix, AZ – 88.83%
CLT Charlotte, NC – 88.71%
ATL Atlanta, GA – 87.09%
MCO Orlando, FL – 86.35%
JFK New York, NY – 86.29%
LAX Los Angeles, CA – 86.02%
DFW Dallas, TX – 85.88%
CGK Jakarta, ID – 85.35%
MIA Miami, FL – 84.18%

Among the airlines, in North America, eight carriers had on-time arrival percentages above 90% in February. Only 1.17% of flights were cancelled, down from January’s 1.63%. North America’s top performing airlines were Horizon Air and Virgin America — 92.48% and 91.45% on-time arrival, respectively.
Here’s how the N. American major carriers fared:
Alaska Airlines – 89.22%
Delta Air Lines – 89.20%
US Airways – 88.92%
American Airlines – 85.52%
Jetblue – 83.71%
United/Continental Airlines – 82.16%
Southwest Airlines – 77.95%
Air Canada – 55.64%

The average on-time performance for European carriers in February was 79.32%, compared to January’s 82.82%, December’s 77.82%, and November’s 80.78%. Europe’s top performing airlines and their on-time arrival percentages were NAYSA — 95.69%, Aegean Airlines — 93.43% and Germanwings — 92.55%.

The average on-time performance for Asian airlines in February was 72.2%, up from January’s 69.99%. Asia’s top 10 performing airlines and their on-time arrival percentages in February were: Japan Transocean Air – 94.63%, Japan Air Commuter – 94.09%, Japan Airlines – 88.98%, J-Air – 88.38%, ANA Wings – 87.74%, Korean Air Lines – 87.25%, ANA – 86.97%, Malaysia Airlines – 85.97%, JAL Express – 85.39%, and SpiceJet – 83.48%.

International airline passenger traffic in January 2012 increased 5.7% compared to January 2011, according data compiled by IATA.
The same source shows that January passenger capacity grew 4.2% year-on-year and average load factor increased 1.1 percentage points to 76.6%.

The table below shows global passenger markets in January 2012, year over year comparisons.

One of the likely technologies to be implemented on a greater scale is Dell.com digital forensics which offers a more collaborative interagency pool of data resources on criminals, terrorists, and those wanting to do us harm.

A report by the United States’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that radiation from Full-body scanners using X-rays is extremely low dose and safe for passengers.

The study explains that a passenger would have to be screened 47 times a day for a year from Full-body scanners to exceed annual limits of radiation.

Around half of Full-body scanners at airports use X-rays — backscatter X-ray technology — the other half of the TSA’s screening machines use millimeter-wave technology.

Last November, the European Union banned the use of the X-ray machines because of health concerns.

Tuesday Feb 21, officials representing 26 governments will meet in Moscow to discuss countermeasures to block the Europe’s carbon tax plan on airlines.

The EU carbon emissions system is a climate protection initiative requiring an airline landing or taking off in Europe to acquire permits corresponding to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during its flight. The system is into effect and the first payments would be due April 2013.

The officials gathering in Moscow are expected to take countermeasures focussing on matters such like reviewing bilateral and agreements on landing rights (open skies agreements etc…), market access, consideration of any new routes and much more.

Earlier this month, China even banned its airlines from participating for now in the European system.

Reports released by the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics for 2011 show that the biggest U.S. airlines had one of their best records for on-time performance.

Data show that 79.6% of fligths arrived on time — within 15 minutes of their scheduled time — during 2011, the fourth highest in 17 years, even if down slightly from 79.8% in 2010.

About luggage services, 99.7% of fliers got their bags on time in 2011 and the rate of mishandled baggage hit the lowest, 3.39 per 1,000 passengers, down from 3.51 in 2010.

About other service measures, BTS’ data show the rate for bumping passengers was the lowest since 2002, 0.81 per 10,000 passengers, down from the 1.09 rate the previous year.

The complete DOT’s reports for 2011 are available at this link.