Tarmac delays increasing, but Sunport not faring poorly

Apr. 21—Tarmac delays are on the rise at the nation's airports, while cancellations are dropping, according to analyses of U.S. Department of Transportation data.

Albuquerque International Sunport fared relatively well compared to other U.S. airports, according to data provided by Upgraded Points, a travel and finance website.

Albuquerque's airport had the 15th fewest tarmac delays among midsize hubs out of 750 U.S. airports surveyed.

Weather may be a factor — good weather that is — for the relatively positive report, according to a Sunport spokesperson.

"There are many factors involved. The main reasons for delays at airports are congestion and weather. In Albuquerque, those two rarely factor in," said Leah Black, a spokeswoman for the airport. "We have adequate facilities, including runways, to not have congestion issues, and weather delays are pretty rare."

Tarmac delays usually occur while a plane is waiting for takeoff or has already landed. Apart from weather, causes could also be a mechanical issue, heavy airport traffic or unavailable debarking gates.

Sit tight

Unfortunately, federal regulations permit airlines to hold passengers on a plane for a tarmac delay for up to three hours. In the case of a tarmac delay, airlines must abide by rules designed for passenger safety and comfort. For example, airlines are required to provide food and water no later than two hours after the start of a tarmac delay, though they're not obligated to provide full meals.

Also, airlines are required to provide passengers with a notification regarding the status of the delay when the tarmac delay exceeds 30 minutes. And they must have working toilets and comfortable cabin temperatures.

Airlines are also required to begin to move the airplane to a location where passengers can safely get off before three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international flights.

Airlines

According to Bureau of Transportation statistics, the worst offender for departure delays was JetBlue, with 1,228 delays per 100,000 flights. The best results were from Southwest Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.

Tradingpedia, a financial news site that analyzed federal data, found that among airlines and airports with at least 20,000 flights in 2023, Delta Air Lines was the airline least likely to delay flights.

The worst airline for flight delays, Tradingpedia said, was Silver Airways, a local carrier based in Hollywood, Florida. The second-worst airline in terms of delays and cancellations in the U.S. was Frontier Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier headquartered in Denver.

That could affect the Sunport in some way.

"We can have delays that are not due to conditions here," Black said. "For example, two of our destinations with the most traffic, Denver and Dallas, frequently have weather issues and can contribute to our delays at times here at the Sunport."

Albuquerque ranked 20th in the total number of tarmac delays with 200 tarmac delays greater than one hour per 100,000 flights in 2023. However, none of the tarmac delays were longer than three hours.

By way of comparison, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York had more than 3,000 tarmac delays per 100,000 flights among large airports. Norfolk International had the most delays among midsize airports with 472 tarmac delays that lasted over an hour for every 100,000 flights.

Tradingpedia's take was that the most reliable airport in the U.S. was the Juneau International Airport, where only 11.3% of departures were delayed in 2023 and 1.7% were canceled. Tradingpedia's worst airport overall for delays and cancellations was Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida.

Cancellations

A look at on-time airline performance by financial analysts at Tradingpedia paints a picture of improvement in air travel.

Using data from aviation industry provider OAG, Tradingpedia found that out of 20,000 flights in 2023, the least punctual airport was Fort Lauderdale International in Florida. But the cancellation rate for domestic travel was the lowest in a decade — below 1.2%.

In other words, flights were more likely to be delayed than canceled. There were delays on about 21% of all flights.

Of the 8.2 million flights by U.S. carriers that OAG examined, 1.7 million were classified as delayed (i.e. delays of 15 minutes or more). More than 109,000 flights were canceled, a rate of roughly 1.33%.

Still, it's worth considering the big picture, the Sunport's Black pointed out.

"It's an extremely complicated national system with lots of people involved that can all have an impact on delays in addition to mother nature, which none of us can control," Black said