Airline travel improved for first half of 2024; passengers should still remember they have rights

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration last week geared up for another busy weekend for airline travel, as the FAA and many airlines celebrated an improved performance for the first half of 2024.

Labor Day weekend got off to a rough start, with more than 8,000 delays on both Thursday and Friday into and out of the United States. There were also about 500 cancellations each of the two days.

Travelers should remember they have legal rights if a flight is canceled for any reason, and if they encounter other disruptions or problems too. Under the Department of Transportation’s two-year push to hold airlines accountable for cancellations and delays under their control, such as ones caused by staffing or equipment, the 10 largest U.S. airlines guarantee free meals and rebooking on the same airline, and nine will pay for ground transportation and hotels for travelers stranded overnight. Only Frontier won’t guarantee this.

Highlights from the first half of the year:

• The cancellation rate for the top 10 airlines and their marketing partners was 1.4% of flights from Jan. 1 through June 30, according to new data released Aug. 30. That’s down from 1.6% during the first half of 2023, down from 3.2% in 2022 and 2.4% in 2019.
• The on-time rates for the top 10 airlines and their marketing partners was 76.93% for Jan. 1 through June 30, up from 76.48% for the first half of 2023.
• For just June, the best on-time rates were posted by Hawaiian (83.6%,) Delta (78.6%) and Alaska (76.8%.) The worst on-time rates were posted by Frontier (61.3%,) JetBlue Airways (69.7%) and Spirit (70.7%.)
• Also just for June, the lowest cancellation rates were posted by Southwest, (0.3%,) Alaska (0.6%) and Hawaiian (0.7%.) The highest cancellation rates were posted by Frontier (3.5%,) Spirit (2.6%) and JetBlue (2.5%.)    
• The mishandled baggage rate was 0.56% for the first half of 2024, down from 0.61% for the first half of 2023.
• The mishandled rate for wheelchairs/scooters was 1.31% for the first half of 2024, down from 1.37% for the first half of 2023.
• The bumping rate (involuntarily denied boarding) was 0.30%, better than the 0.33% rate for the first half of 2023.