February Was the Cruelest Month for Air Travel

If you had a flight canceled in February, you were not alone.

U.Sairlines canceled 23,719 flights (5.5%) that month. That was enough to make it the worst February for domestic air travel since the Department of Transportation started tracking cancelations in 1995.

Delays were also on the rise. Only 70.7% of U.S. flights in February arrived on time, according to the Department of Transportation.

Even so, airlines snatched one small victory from the jaws of defeat: no planes were stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours. Despite thousands of delays and cancellations, carriers managed to keep to the new federal guidelines for tarmac delays. Read more...