Delays plague busiest airports 25% of flights behind schedule Source: Advocate - Baton Rouge Publication date: 2001-07-23 Arrival time: 2001-07-24

WASHINGTON - More than one-quarter of flights into 11 of the nation's busiest airports were at least 15 minutes late during the first five months of the year, government figures show. It was a coast-to-coast problem: Seattle and New York topped the list.

At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 31.3 percent of flights were late from January through May, the Transportation Department said. New York's LaGuardia Airport was just behind, at 31.1 percent.

Three of every 10 flights to Los Angeles International Airport arrived at least 15 minutes behind schedule during the period leading into the summer travel season.

Boston, New York Kennedy, San Francisco, Chicago O'Hare, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego and Newark, N.J., all had at least 25 percent of their flights arriving late.

The numbers are the first look at the airports with the most late flights, as compared with the on-time records of individual airlines or particular flights. The government found 20 regularly scheduled flights arriving late at least half the time last year.

"You won't leave on time; you won't get there on time," said Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University and co-author of an annual study of airline quality. "They confirm what consumers have already built into their own behavior." http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=22452764&ID=cnniw&scategory=Aviation

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), July 25, 2001