Data from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) reveals domestic cancelations in the first three months of 2023 were considerably lower than in the same period last year. Its latest consumer report also sheds light on on-time performance (OTP) and mishandled baggage rates in the country.
US flight cancelations go down
The DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR) for March 2023 and the first quarter of 2023 shows cancelations were below the 2% mark over the first three months of the year. During this period, US carriers canceled 1.7% of scheduled domestic flights, a major decrease from the 4.1% cancelation rate seen over the first quarter of 2022 – this is also trending lower than the 2.7% rate for the entirety of 2022.
There were 608,387 flights operated in March, a 4.64% increase on March 2022’s total of 581,434. Cancelations during March hit 1.3%, an improvement on the 1.8% canceled in February and the 1.5% in March 2022. Delta and Spirit both topped the cancelations table for March with 1.7% of flights scrapped, while Hawaiian Airlines canceled the least at 0.7%
On-time performance and baggage mishandling
The percentage of flights arriving on time (within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival times) in the first quarter of 2023 was 76.89%, a slight increase from 76.35% during the same period in 2022. The top five carriers for on-time arrivals were:
