U.S. carriers in April operated nearly 615,700 flights, about 5.1 percent more than were operated in April 2023. The month-over-month total, however, was down 1.2 percent, according to the latest U.S. Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report.
The April cancellation rate for U.S. carriers was 0.7 percent, lower than the 1.7 percent cancellation rate for April 2023 as well as the 2.4 percent rate for April 2019, according to DOT.
The airlines with the lowest cancellations rates included Delta Air Lines network (0.3 percent), Southwest Airlines (0.4 percent) and Allegiant Air (0.5 percent). Networks include branded codeshare partners. Airlines with the highest April cancellation rates included Frontier Airlines (1.7 percent), JetBlue (1.4 percent) and Hawaiian Airlines (1.3 percent).
For April, carriers handled 40 million bags and reported a mishandled baggage rate of 0.46 percent, lower than each the March 2023 rate of 0.55 percent and the March 2024 rate of 0.52 percent.
DOT continues to modernize its system for handling consumer complaints. The agency in July released data on the received number of submissions—which includes complaints, inquiries and opinions—for 2023 along with totals for each month from June through December. This information did not detail the number of complaints per airline as it had in the past, however DOT said that over the past three years, complaints made up an average of 91 percent of consumer submissions.
The agency plans to release next month submission data for January through May 2024.
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