Op-Ed: New Grades Would School Travelers On Air Delays

The continued pattern of airline delays is not only a serious inconvenience for travelers, it impacts business productivity and tarnishes the reputation and credibility of the travel industry on the whole.

Most flight delays are caused by a multitude of reasons which are not the fault of the carrier, but it's the larger problem of system failure that is the airlines' fault, resulting from uninspired management and misguided concern. A major cause of this chaos is the airlines' continued compulsion to overschedule flights to a theoretical maximum in high-yield periods of the late afternoon and early evening.

It's when theory meets reality that the problems begin. Thunderstorms, heavy rain, snow, fog and wind are not unexpected events. The unknown is when.

Existing flight schedules work only under perfect conditions. There is no flexibility within the current schedule to accommodate re-routed or late flights, so residual delays compound the problem and affect travelers systemwide.

Many have offered possible solutions. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is considering a congestion-pricing model that includes surcharges for flying during high-volume periods. This model would penalize travelers since additional costs inevitably would be passed to them, and with no guarantee it would alleviate the problem.

As a member of the travel industry for more than 25 years and a frequent traveler, I have experienced the aftereffects of these delays both firsthand and through my clients, friends, family and associates. And from these situations, my company, Directravel, has developed a unique approach to ease these stresses. Through our database, we are able to assess flight patterns and steer our clients away from carriers, airports and routes with chronic delays. I also offer the following multi-pronged approach to lessen the impact of these delays:

Step 1: Redefine "on time." Currently, flights are graded on a pass/fail basis. If there is less than a 15-minute arrival delay, the flight is considered on time; if there is more than 15 minutes, it is late. This provides no incentive for the airlines to avoid lengthy delays. Once a flight gets past 15 minutes, they would seem to be motivated to forget that flight and try to keep others from receiving a fail grade.

What is needed is a multi-level approach to measuring performance weighted to ensure continuing concern after flights miss their departure time.

An overall average grade for each airline or route would give the traveler much better awareness about actual airline performance. A variant of the model could factor in flight length, airport difficulty and the weather outlook.

Step 2: Mandate that on-time performance statistics be made available for consumers at the point of purchase to help selection during the trip-planning process. This would require that flight performance ratings be shown on consumer Internet sites—not just on travel agent displays, as currently required. All travel documents, itineraries and e-tickets would have to include this information.

Step 3: Hold airlines accountable for maintaining acceptable performance levels. Rather than assessing a surcharge for flying during peak hours, penalize them for poor execution. If they are unable to meet an acceptable performance (and the determination of what is acceptable is something that carriers can help establish), they should risk losing flight slots. Airlines running smoother operations should be allowed a greater number of prime time slots.

Step 4: Encourage airlines to move flights to regional airports by reducing peak hour slots at congested facilities. In New York, this means shifting to Stewart/Newburgh and MacArthur/Islip airports. Similar opportunities exist throughout the country. This would improve airline performance without increasing ticket prices.

This essentially boils down to allowing airlines to react in their bottom line interest without penalizing travelers. It would put the focus back on customer service and force carriers to try to do a better job. By allowing consumers to make educated decisions with the aid of historic delay patterns for particular routings and carriers, they would have the power to choose a flight not solely based on ticket price but on performance.

Advanced global positioning systems for aircraft and improvements in flight control computer systems are needed, but they are expensive and a distant solution that would not alleviate the current crisis. Taken together, they are no substitute for innovative management with thoughtful government oversight to protect the traveling public.