Puckinflight

In what has to be a record month for United Airlines, the DOT released their monthly statistics on airlines subject to DOT oversight. Part of these statistics includes complaints made to the U.S. government. In July 2012 there 2,057 complaints made, 995 of them were about United Airlines. The next highest total was for American Airlines with a 193 complaints. United has been promoting their increased response to service failures and for decreased federal regulation. When UA gets five complaints for each one their next worst rival gets, it’s clear that UA needs more regulation and is not responding to service complaints. In addition UA came in dead last for on-time arrivals, 64%, had the highest canceled flight percentage for a major U.S. Carrier, the highest number of miss-handled bags per 1,000 passengers for a major airline, highest number of IDBs for a major carrier,

On-time arrivals

Hawaiian 89.6%

Alaska 88.6%

U.S. Airways 82.0%

Chronically delayed flights

For July

Eight Skywest and ExpressJet both operating as United Express flight numbers were chronically delayed.

Four Southwest Flight numbers were chronically delayed

Six United Flight numbers were chronically delayed.

Fight cancelation

ExpressJet 2,270/67,619 or 3.4% of their schedule

American Eagle 1,209/41,670 2.9% of their schedule

United Airlines 1,115/48,027 or 2.3% of their schedule

Tarmac delays over three hours

There were 19 flights with tarmac delays over three hours. 17 of the 19 flights were either United or United Express flights.

Miss-handled bags

Mesa, SkyWest, American Eagle, and ExpressJet take the bottom four slots. With the exception of American Eagle, those airlines operate for multiple carriers. United Airlines again takes most miss-handled bags per 1,000 passengers for a major U.S. Airline.

Overbooking (statistics through June 2012)

United Airlines 2.11, Mesa 2.46, and Skywest 2.58, has the most involuntary denied boarding’s per 10,000 passengers.

Consumer complaints

United Airlines: 995

American: 193

US Airways: 136

Pets incidents

Alaska and Delta had one injured pet apiece

American had one pet death.

Full Stats here http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2012/September/2012SeptATCR.PDF

United Airlines is clearly intending to win their race to the bottom in all but one measured category.