U.S. reporting air carriers in August increased the number of flights they operated compared with a year ago and with July, while cancellation rates declined, according to the latest U.S. Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report.
Operated flights in August were up nearly 5.5 percent year over year to about 631,000 and up 1.2 percent from July 2023. The monthly cancellation rate was 1.5 percent of scheduled flights, lower than the 2.5 percent rate reported in each August 2022 and July 2023.
The carriers with the lowest rates of canceled flights were Alaska Airlines Network (0.4 percent), Allegiant Air (1 percent) and United Airlines Network (1.1 percent). Those with the highest rates of canceled flights were Frontier Airlines (5 percent), JetBlue Airways (2.9 percent) and Southwest Airlines (1.6 percent). Networks include branded codeshare partners.
Airlines in August handled 41.1 million bags and reported a mishandled baggage rate of 0.61 percent, lower than the rate of 0.75 percent in July 2023 and the 0.64 percent rate in August 2022.
Once again, DOT did not include complaint data in its report, citing a continued high volume of air travel service complaints. As noted in the July report, issued last week, the department was awarded an $8 million grant to modernize the Office of Aviation Protection's system for processing complaints. The last complaint data DOT reported was for February 2023, released Aug. 2.
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