Overdue Rule Will Help Fliers Choose On-time Airlines
By William McGee, USA TODAY | Nov. 02, 2016
It was either Otto von Bismarck or Mark Twain who first warned us that laws are like sausages: "It is better not to see them being made." I've never worked as a butcher, but my service on a government aviation committee has underscored the wisdom of this advice.
Six years ago I put forth a rather modest proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The good news is that it has been approved for implementation by the DOT. The bad news is government moves slowly - the rule will take effect two years from now. Thankfully, however, it will help consumers make better decisions when selecting domestic airlines.
Making Sense of Big Data
Back in 2010, I served as the only consumer advocate on the DOT's 19-person Future of Aviation Advisory Committee. For six months, we discussed and debated a wide variety of suggestions for improving air travel, and we included our recommendations in a final report. While serving on the FAAC, other members and I proposed several changes that the DOT (and its subsidiary, the Federal Aviation Administration) did NOT adopt; I was particularly disappointed the FAA did not require mandatory restraints for children under 2 on U.S. commercial flights.
But one proposition I made has worked its way into becoming a federal rule. Last month, the DOT announced a number of new "enhanced protections for air travelers," including a critical overhaul of the service rankings offered to consumers every month, as reported by U.S. airlines.
For years I've lauded the DOT's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, which since 1987 has provided airline passengers with detailed comparative data on how domestic carriers perform. Each report details flight delays and cancellations, mishandled baggage, denied boardings due to oversales, consumer complaints and incidents involving animals.
But in my view, the effectiveness of a once-valuable tool has been negated by the industry's practice of codesharing, which allows airlines to sell tickets on outside and even rival carriers. It's become impossible to determine how most airlines are performing because the DOT reports rank carriers separately from their regional partner airlines. In other words, you may have bought a ticket on Delta but you'll be flying on SkyWest, so the current DOT reports won't help you determine if you're likely to arrive on time. Yet every month such results are widely read and quoted.
For years some of us have criticized codesharing as deceptive to consumers. In fact, the concept would seem absurd when applied to nearly any other industry; imagine Coke being sold in Pepsi bottles and you get the idea. The transparency problems with codesharing are particularly acute with regional partnerships, since many passengers are not aware they will be flying on Airline B when purchasing tickets on Airline A. These issues came to the fore after the fatal accident of Colgan Air/Continental Connection Flight 3407 outside Buffalo in 2009.
According to the Regional Airline Association's most recent data, major airlines operated 53% of all departing flights in 2014, while regionals operated a whopping 47%. A few years earlier, a government study reported 61% of all advertised flights by major network airlines in the United States were flown by regionals. Unfortunately, the DOT publishes service ratings according to the certificate of the carrier doing the flying, so it's impossible for a consumer to determine how a major airline and its regional partners rank together. This is particularly critical when it comes to the nitty-gritty of airline on-time performance, airport by airport and hour by hour, data that comprise about 60% of the total monthly reports.
Improving Transparency for Customers
So here's how these modest changes will play out in the Air Travel Consumer Report. The latest monthly report -- reflecting airline performance in August -- ranks the on-time flight arrivals of the four largest domestic carriers as follows:
Delta: 79.9%
Southwest: 79.8%
United: 77.5%
American: 71.9%
Clearly that's not the full story, since the August report also ranks two ' and ONLY two ' U.S. regional carriers as well, SkyWest (81.5%) and ExpressJet (73.7%).
Unfortunately, the data become so muddied that these reports are virtually useless to a consumer concerned with booking the most punctual major airline. Remember that regionals operate approximately half of all departures for the majors. So in the case of Delta, would we just split the difference between the mainline carrier and its partner SkyWest to determine the real on-time percentage? No, not even close.
You see, among the Big Three network airlines, American Eagle lists 10 regional partners, Delta Connection six regional partners, and United Express nine regional partners. As noted, currently the DOT requires monthly reporting from only ExpressJet and SkyWest, because of their pure size. Happily, the new rules will require ALL regional partners to report.
But reporting statistics is only half the challenge; sorting them properly is just as critical. Many regional airlines fly for one or two or three or even four different major carriers. SkyWest, for example, flies for Alaska, American, Delta and United. So an aggregate on-time record for a given regional carrier is meaningless if it operates 50% on time for Major Airline A and 80% on time for Major Airline B.
Want to be even MORE confused? Some regionals ' such as Cape Air ' even market directly to passengers under their own brand. So it's no wonder the DOT reports are such a hodgepodge of missing and misleading information. Thankfully, the new rules will sort out this whole mess by requiring major airlines to provide ALL data for ALL partners, and aggregate accordingly.
So for the first time in years, consumers can determine which major airlines truly do perform better. The monthly Air Travel Consumer Report will become an indispensible tool for savvy bookers.
Other Improvements En Route
In this political season, with many calling for fewer corporate regulations, it should be noted these new rules will not only greatly benefit consumers but they will hardly place undue burdens on major airlines. Clearly the majors already track the on-time performance of their regional partners, no?
What struck me when I first raised this proposal was the surprise of some DOT officials and airline executives who clearly hadn't realized this was an issue. Because they are so conversant with how the sausage is made, they assumed all consumers understand the nuances of codesharing and airline transparency. Obviously not all consumers and journalists do.
The new rules just announced by the DOT comprise other protections for airline passengers. These include requiring refunds of baggage fees when said bags are delayed, prohibiting bias when airline flights are displayed for purchase, and renewing the charter for the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection. Some passenger advocates have offered praise for these initiatives, while others have noted there is much more to do.
As for that sausage comparison, I'm assuming most cured meats don't take eight years to reach the table. But this new DOT rule will. At the FAAC, we first discussed this topic in the summer of 2010 and forwarded the final proposal to former DOT Secretary Raymond LaHood later that year; the proposal then was released for public comments in 2014 and last week it was announced the new rules will take effect in 2018.
Consider that: It takes eight years for a rather modest, sensible and straightforward new ruling to take effect. A sobering thought as Election Day nears.