What impact does that have on overall flight delays?
DOT only looks at flight delays and [only considers] delays in excess of 15 minutes. You also need to look at canceled flights, which go to a different column in the DOT and FAA database. And canceled flights generate approximately 10 times longer delays for passengers than delayed flights. Q: And 2007 was an especially bad year for cancellations? A: Cancellation statistics went up in 2007, and a small increase in the number of flight cancellations can generate a very large increase in passenger delays. Even though you might have 25 percent of all flights in the U.S. delayed and only two percent canceled, the passengers on the canceled flights have almost the same amount of total delay as all the delayed passengers put together. The interaction between cancellations and high load factors amplifies the delays. Q: Will flight caps help? A: Capping flights at airports like Newark, LaGuardia and JFK will only lock in inefficient utilization at those very important airports. The airlines ca
