A Flight-Delay Excuse I'd Never Heard Before

(Flightaware.com)

(NEW YORK) — U.S. airlines were less likely in 2012 to lose your suitcase than at any other point in the last two decades, the government announced Tuesday. There were only 3.09 reports of lost, delayed or damaged baggage for every 1,000 passengers, the lowest annual rate since the Department of Transportation started tracking incidents in 1988. Airlines also improved their performance in getting planes to gates on time. Last year, 81.85 percent of flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. That is the third highest rate since 1988. The record was set in 2002 at 82.14 percent.

(NEW YORK) — U.S. airlines were less likely in 2012 to lose your suitcase than at any other point in the last two decades, the government announced Tuesday. There were only 3.09 reports of lost, delayed or damaged baggage for every 1,000 passengers, the lowest annual rate since the Department of Transportation started tracking incidents in 1988. Airlines also improved their performance in getting planes to gates on time. Last year, 81.85 percent of flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. That is the third highest rate since 1988. The record was set in 2002 at 82.14 percent.

787 airliner – once called '

Efforts by Canadian airlines to improve profitability may be starting to cause some strain on operations, which could lead to an increase in delayed flights for customers across their networks.

DALLAS — American Airlines grounded flights across the country Tuesday because of an outage of its main reservations system. Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports and on airplanes. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said American asked to halt its flights until 5 p.m. EDT. Flights into American’s five biggest cities — New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami — are stopped until 5:30 p.m. EDT.